As a long-time researcher on religious trends, I’ve spent a good part of my career documenting and discussing the decline of religion in American life. Oftentimes, at the conclusion of a lecture or presentation, I would be met with some combination of consternation and dismay. Then I get the inevitable question: “If religion is going away, what replaces it?”
For those of us concerned about the rise in social isolation, alienation, and friendlessness, America’s religious decline is especially concerning. Formal religious membership has plummeted and only about three in ten Americans report attending religious services at least once a week.
A new survey offers some tantalizing clues as to how commercial places could fill in some of the gaps left by religion. Community social spaces, or “third places” as sociologist Ray Oldenburg dubbed them, could take on some of the critical societal functions of religion. Today, a majority (56 percent) of the public has a place in their community where …
