About this item
American Millennials--the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s--have been leaving organized religion in unprecedented numbers. For a long time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an exception: nearly three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon stayed that way into adulthood. In The Next Mormons, Jana Riess demonstrates that things are starting to change.Drawing on a large-scale national study of four generations of current and former Mormons as well as dozens of in-depth personal interviews, Riess explores the religious beliefs and behaviors of young adult Mormons, finding that while their levels of belief remain strong, their institutional loyalties are less certain than their parents' and grandparents'. For a growing number of Millennials, the tensions between the Church's conservative ideals and their generation's commitment to individualism and pluralism prove too high, causing them to leave the faith-often experiencing deep personal anguish in the process.
About the Author
Jana Riess is the author or editor of many books, the most recent being "The Twible," which has all the chapters in the Bible in 140 characters or less . . . now with 68% more humor! Her 2011 book "Flunking Sainthood" was selected as one of the top ten religion books of the year by "Publishers Weekly."
Although she is a spiritual failure and was never able to climb the rope in gym class, she has a doctorate from Columbia University and works as an editor in the publishing industry. So she's not a total loser. She blogs for the Religion News Service at http://www.religionnews.com/blogs/jana-riess.
