''Who are these clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?" I said to him..."These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb."

In Habits of the Heart, the sociological study of Americans in the Eighties, there is an interview with someone named "Sheila." When asked about religion, Sheila says, "I consider myself religious, but I don't know when I've been to church. My religion is just my own little voice. I guess you could call my religion 'Sheilaism'." A religious journal designated Sheila as "The Theologian of the Eighties." Sheila is us.

A Duke student noted recently that, on this campus as on nearly any other, it is as if religion is the one unmentionable activity. We talk about everything --…