Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A personal prelude: Confessions of a former SBNR -- Introduction -- Waking from the dream -- The interviewees -- Common themes -- Transcendence -- Human nature -- Community -- Afterlife -- Conclusions and implications -- Afterword: Rita Rodriguez and the resiliency of religion -- Appendix: On methodology.

The last twenty years have seen a dramatic increase in "nones": people who do not claim any religious affiliation. These "nones" now outnumber even the largest Protestant denominations in America. They are not to be confused with secularists, however, for many of them identify themselves as "spiritual but not religious" (SBNR). The response to this dramatic change in American religion has been amazingly mixed. While social scientists have been busy counting and categorizing them, the public has swung between derision and adulation. Some complain "nones" are simply shallow dilettantes, narcissistically concerned with their own inner world. Others hail them as spiritual giants, and ground-breaking pioneers. Rarely, however, have these "nones" been asked to explain their own views, beliefs, and experiences. In Belief without Borders, theologian and one-time SBNR Linda Mercadante finally gives these individuals a chance to speak for themselves.