Mainlining Nostalgia

Ryan Burge is unignorable. A political scientist known for his “graphs about religion,” Burge is required reading for anyone who writes about Christianity in America today. He has a special knack for pairing the right questions with the right instruments, then packaging the results in a form that is accessible to the data-illiterate (among whom this reader is chief). His work is devoured on the right and on the left, by Catholics, evangelicals, and skeptics, by journalists, scholars, and humble theologians. At its best, Burge’s data-driven sociology of religion provides a limited but accurate snapshot of American faith—an infamously moving target. And Burge himself is at his best when he emphasizes those limits, avoids punditry, and accompanies the data with a range of plausible interpretations.