With [Crisis in the Church: A Study of Religion in America], Greeley fulfilled his commission from the American Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Evangelization, to study the phenomenon of the unchurched in America. He concludes that evangelization "would represent a misplaced emphasis." The unchurched are so by their own design, he says; religious affiliation is more complex than evangelization can itself address; and it is better to strengthen family life for the sake of greater religiosity. The greatest stumbling block to Catholic evangelization is the Church's ban on birth control.

As sociology, this work is a spotty potpourri of secondary analysis of survey data…. After expressing due caution about his data, Greeley goes on to provide a sometimes fascinating, sometimes strikingly insightful, sometimes trite, and sometimes petulant discussion of an array of variables and phenomena related to church affiliation in the United States. (p. 992)

The greatest contribution of...