Becoming Catholic: Finding Rome in the American Religious Landscape - Hardcover

David Yamane teaches sociology at Wake Forest University. His primary scholarly interest is the sociology of organized religion, particularly Roman Catholicism in the postwar United States. His publications include The Catholic Church in State Politics: Negotiating Prophetic Demands and Political Realities (2005), Real Stories of Christian Initiation: Lessons for and from the RCIA (2006), and Religion in Sociological Perspective (2011).

"A much-needed empirical contribution to the sociological literature broadly on rites of initiation, and narrowly on the process of RCIA."--Catholic Books Review

"This book is well-written and informative. It effectively balances data with rich human detail through vignettes of particular people going through the process."--Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

"David Yamane makes a convincing case that...life changes and the institutional ritual processes designed to engender them are worth our attention."--American Journal of Sociology

"Yamane wrote Becoming Catholic as a sociologist, but his style is accessible to any interested reader and might well be required reading for anyone active in a parish RCIA program. Becoming Catholic is informative concerning the RCIA. But any Catholic can benefit from reading it because it encourages a renewed appreciation and sense of gratitude for being Catholic." --Catholic News Service

"[Yamane] asserts that this project--which gives a thorough overview and analysis of the RCIA process throughout--is merely a 'case study' of six parishes in Indiana, yet anyone who picks up this book will see that the work he accomplished is rather extensive."
--Publishers Weekly

"Why do people join the Catholic church? How do they enter? Why do they stay? Do they stay at all? David Yamane's excellent new book offers a clear-eyed look at the process of initiation into the Catholic Church in the U.S. and sheds light on what many observers term the most successful of the Second Vatican Council's reforms: the reinvigoration of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). Yamane's is the rare book that is superbly researched, well-written, and, above all, acutely sensitive to the spiritual experiences of those under scrutiny. It deserves to be read by every bishop, priest, brother, sister, and director of religious education in the United States. In fact, it deserves to be read by every American Catholic." --James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage

"David Yamane breaks new ground topically and methodologically in this study of a modern western initiation rite 'as it is lived.' His data from fieldwork on the RCIA is rich and often surprising; his analyses keep reinventing sociological categories, while adding insights from history, educational theory, and comparative religion. Not least, Yamane writes with flair and dispassion. It is a delightful read. Becoming Catholic is a model of multidisciplinary scholarship on U.S. Roman Catholicism, and thus has wide applicability to a range of intellectual issues in the study of American religion." --Julie Byrne, Monsignor Thomas J. Hartman Chair in Catholic Studies, Hofstra University

"David Yamane has fashioned a study of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) from careful observation, relentless insight, and engaging narrative. This exemplary book should be read by students of American Catholicism and, more generally, by those who appreciate good sociological craftsmanship." ---Jerome P. Baggett, author of Sense of the Faithful: How American Catholics Live Their Faith