Abstract In l958, Sociologist Gerhard Lenski conducted a survey in metropolitan Detroit focusing upon people's religious attitudes and experiences, and the way they affected people's behavior in a variety of non-religious contexts. In their family lives, their political orientations, their friendships networks, and so on, Lenski documented consistently different patterns among Protestants, Catholics and Jews. Lenski reported most of his major findings in a subsequent book entitled, The Religious Factor. This book is widely considered to be a landmark study of religion in America, and in the 30 years since Lenski's study there have been numerous detailed examinations of specific aspects of Lenski's findings. However, none of the more recent analyses have approximated a complete replication. Alwin will survey a representative sample of Metropolitan Detroit, the same population from which Lenski sampled. The same questions will be asked, supplemented by questions which have appeared in more recent national surveys. Thus, it will be possible to relate the Detroit Area findings to themselves, 30 years earlier, and to national patterns as well. The analysis will focus both upon trends within the major religions and the degree to which, in people's secular lives, there has been convergence among the major religious denominations.
