Few areas in American life have experienced as profound a change in structure and mission as religion in this epoch of women's struggle for complete equality and integration. Until recently, few studies have attempted the sort of empirical and theoretical integration that reveals the magnitude of this shift in basic roles, attitudes and participation in church life. The author has assembled a well-designed and carefully defined volume to give the reader a solid, empirical look at this revolution in religious practice and belief. It also provides an insight into the sharp differences in opinions among women involved in religion: the degree to which women change the structure if liturgy or simply partake of traditions from which they were formally excluded; the extend to which women increase church involvement in social issues or retain a classical orientation to preaching; the extent to which gender has an impact on everything from interpersonal relations of clergy with laity to preaching orientations

The current generation of young adults, at least in the Western world, has shown a marked tendency toward a preference for describing themselves as "spiritual" as contrasted to "religious." This book seeks to examine the possible meanings and consequences associated with this contrast in terms of the similarities and differences that affect those who use these terms with respect to the everyday practices that they themselves employ or believe should follow from being self-defined as "religious" or "spiritual" - or not. The several chapters in this volume take up the religious-spiritual contrast specifically through investigations into practice: In what ways do people who claim to be "religious" or "spiritual" define these self-images as manifest in their own lives? How on a daily basis does a person who considers himself or herself "religious" or "spiritual" live out that self-image in specific ways that she or he can describe to others, even if not share with others? Are there ways that being "spiritual" can involve religion or ways that being "religious" can involve spirituality, and if so, how do these differ from concepts in prior eras (e.g., Ignatian spirituality, Orthodox spirituality, Anglican spirituality, etc.)? We also explore if there are institutions of spiritual practice to which those who term themselves "spiritual" turn, or if the difference implied by these terms may instead be between institutionalized and de-institutionalized expressions of practice, including but not limited to self-spiritualities.