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One moment he acknowledges that even as religious participation in general has been sharply declining, fundamentalists and evangelicals have experienced growth. But before you can turn around, he refers us to a footnote in which sociologist Robert Wuthnow says that evangelicals are primarily interested in individual piety and thus support the "bowling alone" megatrend. (Dutifully following up on that footnote, we discover that Wuthnow was referring to "the first half of the twentieth century." Whoops!) Several chapters later, lo and behold, "evangelical and fundamentalist churches (along with their counterparts in Judaism and other religious traditions) constitute one of the most notable exceptions to the general decline in social capital that I have traced in this book." Go figure.

So it is all the more noteworthy, given the animus many people feel at the very word evangelical and the confusing treatment of conservative Protestants in Bowling Alone, that Better Together includes Saddleback Church as one of the case studies. Don Cohen, who visited Saddleback in May 2002 and interviewed Rick Warren, members of the staff, and church members, gives a very positive view of the "Purpose-Driven" program, with special emphasis on small groups. The unmistakable conclusion is that evangelicals can be trusted at the civic table; Cohen observes correctly that "evangelism is, finally, the engine that drives" Saddleback, but there's not a hint of paranoia in his account.

As we have noted, not all Christians believe that we should strive to have a place at the civic table. But we do have a precedent—a man who dined with tax collectors and all kinds of riffraff.

John Wilson is editor of Books & Culture.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today.Click for reprint information.

Better Together is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

John Wilson is editor of Books & Culture, which also reviewedBowling Alone.

Robert Wuthnow reviewed Robert D. Putnam's earlier book, Bowling Alone.

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February 2004, Vol. 48, No. 2