The Next Mormons

How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church

By: Jana Riess

Narrated by: Emily Durante

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

American Millennials - the generation born in the 1980s and 1990s - have been leaving organized religion in unprecedented numbers. For a long time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an exception: Nearly three-quarters of people who grew up Mormon stayed that way into adulthood. In The Next Mormons, Jana Riess demonstrates that things are starting to change.  

Drawing on a large-scale national study of four generations of current and former Mormons as well as dozens of in-depth personal interviews, Riess explores the religious beliefs and behaviors of young adult Mormons, finding that while their levels of belief remain strong, their institutional loyalties are less certain than their parents' and grandparents'. For a growing number of Millennials, the tensions between the Church's conservative ideals and their generation's commitment to individualism and pluralism prove too high, causing them to leave the faith. Those who remain within the fold are attempting to carefully balance the Church's strong emphasis on the traditional family with their generation's more inclusive definition that celebrates same-sex couples and women's equality.  

The Next Mormons offers a portrait of a generation navigating between traditional religion and a rapidly changing culture.

©2019 Jana Riess (P)2019 Tantor

Not Surprised & Surprised!

As a millennial I wanted to know if my experiences echoed those of my generation. I would say that for the most part I am like the majority of my generation. But there were statistics that were surprising to me! Both of the hopeful and nonhopeful sort! But I guess hopeful is up for interpretation. Very good book though! I appreciated the thoroughness in explanation of the data as well.

Very insightful

As a baby boomer and a descent of early Mormon pioneers, I found this book to insightful and interesting. I wish current church leaders would read it.

Meaningful information

This information has helped me understand the different generations of life. I have more love towards them all, and try to be more like Christ in my acceptance. Also, I realize how tunnel vision I can get. Thank you Jana for taking the time to complete this study.

great book with great data

this was a great book with plenty of very interesting and relevant data. it would be nice if the data was slightly more digested within the book. this would help with knowing what all this actually means.

Mormonism

This is a good factual book current situations within the Mormon church. I found the book interesting from a survey standpoint, and a good explanation as to the large Exodus that's currently facing the Mormon church.

Excellent!

I love this book and think everyone should read it . It has been revolutionizing for me. Thank you!

Thank you Jana Riess!

So grateful for this incredible book! I love reading Jana’s insights into the world of Mormondom—but to see/hear the actual data behind the shift in Mormonism a delight.

There’s a great mix of anecdotal stories bringing the stats to life. Great piece and so needed! I hope the leadership at the top is paying attention to her discoveries — after all, good information provides the best inspiration!

Biased and one sided

I thought this book was about how millennials are CHANGING we the church, not why they are leaving the church. I was very disappointed at how much of the authors agenda was apparent, instead of just facts.

I loved the facts and there are viewpoints that need to be told, but where are the positive stories? what IS working not just what is broken?

The author focuses too much on what is important to her, such as people leaving because of being offended by seeming lack of women's rights in the temple, when she admits that is a low cause for leaving the church, yet much time was focused on it and brought up again and again. Yet the number one cause of leaving the church is feeling judged, that gets a small mention at the end of the book.

Time and time again, the stories and details she chooses to include and not include and focus on and not focus on show a lot of author bias.

I would've loved this book a lot more if she had a coauthor with different viewpoints to help balance her out.

Perhaps I'm not the target audience. If I were to guess the target audience it would be people who have left the church or on the fence about leaving it or actively fighting the leadership of the church to change policies and want to feel justified.

I don't think it's bad to say, here's what's going on and possibly being ignored. I think that discussion is healthy and necessary. But to be a well rounded book, you have to tell all sides and perspectives and try to remain impartial, allowing the reader to decide.

Also, at the end she tells us we can find the data from her survey on the book's website. That will probably be far more interesting to me than her interpretation of that data.