Becoming Catholic—Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape By David Yamane Oxford University Press. 2014. 256 pages. $29.95 hardcover

Extract

What do sociologists David Yamane and Christian Smith, politicians Tony Blair and Sam Brownback, actors Gary Cooper and Faye Dunaway, musicians Dave Brubeck and Andrea Bocelli, and Oglala Sioux medicine man Black Elk have in common with one another, and with Saint Paul (Paul of Tarsus) and the Roman Emperor Constantine? That's right—they are all converts to the Catholic religion. People have been converting to Catholicism (and Christianity) throughout its history, and this is as true in the contemporary world as it was in the past. In fact, each year there are an estimated 150,000 converts to Catholicism in the United States—roughly 11 percent of contemporary Catholics are converts. One in every four Americans is a Catholic, which means that roughly one in every 50 Americans is a converted Catholic. Whether this is a phenomenon that is growing larger is debatable, but it is certainly a topic of interest to sociologists of religion.