(RNS) — Americans are leaving organized religion in staggering numbers. In the newly released book “Done: How to Flourish After Leaving Religion,” Hope College psychology professor Daryl Van Tongeren offers ways to navigate the “grief, loss, pain, and longing” that often accompany such transitions and then points to new paths to find meaning.
His book goes beyond anecdotes and memoir to offer insights based on his research — focusing on the social motivation for meaning and its connection to virtue and morality — as director of the Frost Center for Social Science Research at Hope College.
For readers who want more, Van Tongeren is working on another book with his wife, Sara Showalter Van Tongeren, a clinical social worker who specializes in working with people undergoing religious changes. Their forthcoming book is meant to help counselors and therapists, who may lack a religious background themselves, to understand how important religion is to many people and why leaving it is often so disruptive to their lives.
RNS talked to Daryl Van Tongeren about why people are leaving religion and what they’re turning to next to find fulfillment. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What inspired you to write “Done”?
For a long time, I’ve done research on how religion provides people with a sense of meaning in life. I noticed a tre …