The Road Soon Taken

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Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University and author of 10 books (including The Shema, JPS, and The Religious Thought of Hasidism, KTAV/Yeshiva Univ. Press), says that American religion is currently in transition. "We are moving toward a more spiritual conception of religion, one that is highly subjective and involves more emotion than reason," says Lamm. This tendency will continue in the next five to 10 years, he predicts, and with it comes a turn to what Lamm calls "pseudo-mysticism, which is looked upon as a state of mind but fails to appreciate the objective elements of Kabbalah."

Lamm thinks this phase will then begin to spend itself: "Like everything else in life, religion, too, is subject to the laws of the pendulum," he observes. "Over-emphasis on spirituality will make religion appear totally subjective, without any anchor in reality." That will eventually give way to a more balanced view that lends equal credence both to spirituality and a more structured religious life based on conduct and behavior in the ritual, ethical, moral and social realms, he asserts.

In Judaism, too, Lamm detects a confrontation between a strong focus on halakah -- the highly structured laws of the Torah -- and the growing stress on spirituality with its subjectivity, individualism and emphasis on emotion over reason. At the end of the next decade, he foresees that spirituality and Jewish law will reach a dynamic equilibrium.--

"I think people are going to get tired of their diet of fast-food spirituality and want to get back to good, nutritious meals," says Joel Fotinos, director of religious publishing for Penguin Putnam. The general, "New Agey" spirituality books that have fueled the growth in the religion category will be replaced with titles by authors who connect with a specific "wisdom tradition," says Fotinos.

For churches, synagogues and other religious institutions, that means "pick-and-choose" practitioners who had previously eschewed institutional connections will be coming home. "You know the saying, 'It's better to dig one deep well than 12 shallow ones.' People are going to go back to digging one deep well," predicts Fotinos. After years of individualistic sampling of spiritual truths, people are recognizing that they don't always know what's best for themselves, he says. "It's interesting that all religious traditions, each in their own way, teach the paradoxical concept that true freedom comes from complete obedience," he notes. "That's not what the 'lite' spirituality books are telling people."

But Americans' return to their religious roots will not simply mean reverting to old beliefs and practices. "Every generation needs to take the traditional teachings and reinvent them for their time," says Fotinos. "What that does is make religion or spirituality and religious publishing constantly growing and ever-changing, yet rooted in principles that don't change," he says. "It makes everything new all over again." --

As she surveys the spiritual landscape and looks toward the near future, Yvonne Haddad, professor of the history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at Georgetown University and the author of 14 books (Muslims on the Americanization Path?, Oxford Univ. Press, Jan. 2000), singles out the role of immigration in shaping American religion. "We are a different country now than we were in the '70s as a result of the new Asian and Hispanic immigration," Haddad notes. "Immigrants especially are shaping their identities through religion, America reshapes these religions and America itself is being reshaped by that reshaping."

In the U.S., for example, the role of imam in a mosque is often assumed by a layperson, whereas overseas, the imam is appointed either by the government or by a religious organization. "The mosque in America is a replica of a church or synagogue, with social and educational activities. Overseas, it's not community based. People pray and go home," Haddad says. "This American interpretation is exported when transnational Muslims return home. Ideas are not place bound anymore." The question of how ideas generated in America by new immigrant groups are being transplanted overseas is a major one, according to Haddad. "Globalization is a big issue."

While the Muslim community estimates about five million followers in the U.S. today, not enough attention has been paid to the large Hindu and Buddhist populations, Haddad says. In the next century, she predicts, "we will become more aware of the diversity of American religion and the major changes in the demography of religious America." As another example, she points out that Presbyterian churches are not stereotypically white Protestant anymore. In California, they are predominantly Korean. In the Hispanic community, sociologists have found that 50% of immigrants become Pentecostal Protestants, she adds.-