Bowling Alone

The Collapse and Revival of American Community
by Robert D. Putnam (Simon & Schuster, 2000)

This is not a book about revival in the spiritual sense, but it explains well how our family-oriented society collapsed into mall-culture and offers a few signs of renewal. Pastors will need to make the applications to ministry. Putnam's big book (414 pp. plus endnotes) is punctuated by charts and graphs and lots of quotable statistics.

The American Paradox

Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty
by David G. Myers (Yale, 2000)

This is church-league "Bowling." Myers, a psychology professor at Hope College, analyzes post-war trends in marriage and divorce, crime, media, and morality, and draws some implications for society and for people of faith.

Mustard Seed Versus McWorld

Reinventing Life and Faith for the Future
by Tom Sine (Baker, 1999)

Sine approaches the trend data from a Christian perspective and brings to his findings an agenda for a simpler, faith-driven lifestyle. Sine's engaging ...