Download or read book Religio Political Narratives in the United States written by A. Sims and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-06-18 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors select sermons by Martin Luther King Jr. and Jeremiah Wright to as a framework to examine the meaning of God in America as part of the formational religio-political narrative of the country.
Download or read book Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States written by R. Marie Griffith and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2008-06-09 with total page 750 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays from a special issue of American Quarterly explores the complex and sometimes contradictory ways that religion matters in contemporary public life. Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States offers a groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary conversation between scholars in American studies and religious studies. The contributors explore numerous modes through which religious faith has mobilized political action. They utilize a variety of definitions of politics, ranging from lobbying by religious leaders to the political impact of popular culture. Their work includes the political activities of a very diverse group of religious believers: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. In addition, the book explores the meanings of religion for people who might contest the term—those who are spiritual but not religious, for example, as well as activists who engage symbols of faith and community but who may not necessarily consider themselves members of a specific religion. Several essays also examine the meanings of secular identity, humanist politics, and the complex evocations of civil religion in American life. No other book on religion and politics includes anything like the diversity of religions, ethnicities, and topics that this one does—from Mormon political mobilization to attempts at Americanizing Muslims in the post-9/11 United States, from César Chávez to James Dobson, from interreligious cooperation and conflict over Darfur to the global politics surrounding the category of Hindus and South Asians in the United States.
Download or read book Religio Political Narratives in the United States written by A. Sims and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-06-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors select sermons by Martin Luther King Jr. and Jeremiah Wright to as a framework to examine the meaning of God in America as part of the formational religio-political narrative of the country.
Download or read book Politics and the Religious Imagination written by John H.A. Dyck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics and the Religious Imagination is the product of a group of interdisciplinary scholars each analyzing the connections between religious narratives and the construction of regional and global politics, combining a set of theoretical and philosophic insights with several case studies that represent varied geographies and religious customs. The past decade has seen increasing interest in the links between religion and politics, and this edited volume seeks to take religion seriously as a motivator of action. Few studies have attempted to bring together the multi-disciplinary work in this burgeoning field of study and this work takes a global perspective, using a variety of contexts including East-West relations to analyze the following key themes: the constructive and destructive hermeneutics of religious stories the relevance and importance of religion as a dominant political narrative the rise of new stories among groups as agents of change the way that religious narratives help to define and constrain the Other the manipulation of religious stories for political benefit This work argues that it is insufficient to judge the relationship of religion and politics through mere institutional or quantitative lenses, and this collection proves that while this promise of the narrative part of the social imaginary has been recognized in political theory to a certain extent, its influence in the realm of empirical political science has yet to be fully considered. Combining the work of a wide range of experts, this collection will be of great interests to scholars of politics, philosophy, religious studies, and the literary influence of religion.
Download or read book America s Religious Wars written by Kathleen M. Sands and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How American conflicts about religion have always symbolized our foundational political values When Americans fight about "religion," we are also fighting about our conflicting identities, interests, and commitments. Religion-talk has been a ready vehicle for these conflicts because it is built on enduring contradictions within our core political values. The Constitution treats religion as something to be confined behind a wall, but in public communications, the Framers treated religion as the foundation of the American republic. Ever since, Americans have translated disagreements on many other issues into an endless debate about the role of religion in our public life. Built around a set of compelling narratives--George Washington's battle with Quaker pacifists; the fight of Mormons and Catholics for equality with Protestants; Teddy Roosevelt's concept of land versus the Lakota's concept; the creation-evolution controversy; and the struggle over sexuality--this book shows how religion, throughout American history, has symbolized, but never resolved, our deepest political questions.
Download or read book An Age of Infidels written by Eric R. Schlereth and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eric R. Schlereth places religious conflicts between deists and their opponents at the center of early American public life. This history recasts the origins of cultural politics in the United States by exploring how everyday Americans navigated questions of religious truth and difference in an age of emerging religious liberty.
Download or read book Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy written by Robert Wuthnow and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the actions and advocacy of diverse religious communities in the United States have supported democracy’s development during the past century Does religion benefit democracy? Robert Wuthnow says yes. In Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy, Wuthnow makes his case by moving beyond the focus on unifying values or narratives about culture wars and elections. Rather, he demonstrates that the beneficial contributions of religion are best understood through the lens of religious diversity. The religious composition of the United States comprises many groups, organizations, and individuals that vigorously, and sometimes aggressively, contend for what they believe to be good and true. Unwelcome as this contention can be, it is rarely extremist, violent, or autocratic. Instead, it brings alternative and innovative perspectives to the table, forcing debates about what it means to be a democracy. Wuthnow shows how American religious diversity works by closely investigating religious advocacy spanning the past century: during the Great Depression, World War II, the civil rights movement, the debates about welfare reform, the recent struggles for immigrant rights and economic equality, and responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The engagement of religious groups in advocacy and counteradvocacy has sharpened arguments about authoritarianism, liberty of conscience, freedom of assembly, human dignity, citizens’ rights, equality, and public health. Wuthnow hones in on key principles of democratic governance and provides a hopeful yet realistic appraisal of what religion can and cannot achieve. At a time when many observers believe American democracy to be in dire need of revitalization, Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy illustrates how religious groups have contributed to this end and how they might continue to do so despite the many challenges faced by the nation.
Download or read book Religion in America written by Denis Lacorne and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-16 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Denis Lacorne identifies two competing narratives defining the American identity. Associated with the Founding Fathers and reflected in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers, an essentially secular line of reasoning is predicated on separating religion from politics to preserve political freedom from overpowering church interests. The second narrative is based on the premise that religion is a fundamental part of the American identity and emphasizes the importance of New England Puritans in the original settlement of America. Lacorne examines the role of religion in the making of these narratives and how key historians, philosophers, novelists, and intellectuals situate religion in American politics. New material addresses the role of religion in the 2012 United States presidential election.
Download or read book Conceived in Doubt written by Amanda Porterfield and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans have long acknowledged a deep connection between evangelical religion and democracy in the early days of the republic. This is a widely accepted narrative that is maintained as a matter of fact and tradition—and in spite of evangelicalism’s more authoritarian and reactionary aspects. In Conceived in Doubt, Amanda Porterfield challenges this standard interpretation of evangelicalism’s relation to democracy and describes the intertwined relationship between religion and partisan politics that emerged in the formative era of the early republic. In the 1790s, religious doubt became common in the young republic as the culture shifted from mere skepticism toward darker expressions of suspicion and fear. But by the end of that decade, Porterfield shows, economic instability, disruption of traditional forms of community, rampant ambition, and greed for land worked to undermine heady optimism about American political and religious independence. Evangelicals managed and manipulated doubt, reaching out to disenfranchised citizens as well as to those seeking political influence, blaming religious skeptics for immorality and social distress, and demanding affirmation of biblical authority as the foundation of the new American national identity. As the fledgling nation took shape, evangelicals organized aggressively, exploiting the fissures of partisan politics by offering a coherent hierarchy in which God was king and governance righteous. By laying out this narrative, Porterfield demolishes the idea that evangelical growth in the early republic was the cheerful product of enthusiasm for democracy, and she creates for us a very different narrative of influence and ideals in the young republic.
Download or read book Moses in America written by Melanie J. Wright and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-11-14 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the retelling of the life of Moses in three 20th-century American narratives: Moses in Red, by Lincoln Steffens; Moses, Man of the Mountain, by Zora Neale Hurston; and Cecil B. DeMille's film, The Ten Commandments. Wright's analysis reveals that the figure of Moses has strong currency in American culture at many levels.
Download or read book Faithful Narratives written by Andrea Sterk and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-24 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historians of religion face complex interpretive issues when examining religious texts, practices, and experiences. Faithful Narratives presents the work of twelve eminent scholars whose research has exemplified compelling strategies for negotiating the difficulties inherent in this increasingly important area of historical inquiry. The chapters range chronologically from Late Antiquity to modern America and thematically from the spirituality of near eastern monks to women's agency in religion, considering familiar religious communities alongside those on the margins and bringing a range of spiritual and religious practices into historical focus. Focusing on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the essays address matters central to the study of religion in history, in particular texts and traditions of authority, interreligious discourse, and religious practice and experience. Some examine mainstream communities and traditions, others explore individuals who crossed religious or confessional boundaries, and still others study the peripheries of what is considered orthodox religious tradition. Encompassing a wide geographical as well as chronological scope, Faithful Narratives illustrates the persistence of central themes and common analytical challenges for historians working in all periods.
Download or read book Religion Politics and American Identity written by David S. Gutterman and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholarship on the role of religion in American public life has taken on a new urgency in the increasingly contentious wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. This volume brings together an impressive group of scholars to build on past work and broaden the scope of this crucial inquiry in two respects: by exploring aspects of the religion-politics nexus in the United States that have been neglected in the past, and by examining traditional questions concerning the religious tincture of American political discourse in provocative new ways. Essays include examinations of religious rhetoric in American political and cultural discourse after September 11th, the impact of religious ideas on environmental ethics, religion and American law beyond the First Amendment, religious responses to questions of gay and lesbian rights, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and issues of free speech and public space in Utah, and the role of religious institutions and ideas on the political priorities of African-American and Latino communities. In addition, Religion, Politics, and American Identity includes introductory and concluding essays by leading scholars in the field of religion and politics that assess present and future directions for study.
Download or read book Religion and Politics Beyond the Culture Wars written by Darren Dochuk and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume reframes the narrative that has too often dominated the field of historical study of religion and politics: the culture wars. Influenced by culture war theories first introduced in the 1990s, much of the recent history of modern American religion and politics is written in a mode that takes for granted the enduring partisan divides that can blind us to the complex and dynamic intersections of faith and politics. The contributors to Religion and Politics Beyond the Culture Wars argue that such narratives do not tell the whole story of religion and politics in the modern age. This collection of essays, authored by leading scholars in American religious and political history, challenges readers to look past familiar clashes over social issues to appreciate the ways in which faith has fueled twentieth-century U.S. politics beyond predictable partisan divides and across a spectrum of debates ranging from environment to labor, immigration to civil rights, domestic legislation to foreign policy. Offering fresh illustrations drawn from a range of innovative primary sources, theories, and methods, these essays emphasize that our rendering of religion and politics in the twentieth century must appreciate the intersectionality of identities, interests, and motivations that transpire and exist outside an unbending dualistic paradigm. Contributors: Darren Dochuk, Janine Giordano Drake, Joseph Kip Kosek, Josef Sorett, Patrick Q. Mason, Wendy L. Wall, Mark Brilliant, Andrew Preston, Matthew Avery Sutton, Kathleen Sprows Cummings, Benjamin Francis-Fallon, Michelle Nickerson, Keith Makoto Woodhouse, Kate Bowler, and James T. Kloppenberg.
Download or read book Religion in the United States of America written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Prophetic Politics written by David S. Gutterman and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the relationships among religion, politics, and narratives? What makes prophetic political narratives congenial or hostile to democratic political life? David S. Gutterman explores the prophetic politics of four twentieth- and twenty-first-century American Christian social movements: the Reverend Billy Sunday and his vision of "muscular Christianity"; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement; the conservative Christian male organization Promise Keepers; and the progressive antipoverty organization Call to Renewal. Gutterman develops a theory based on the work of Hannah Arendt and others and employs this framework to analyze expressions of the prophetic impulse in the political narrative of the United States. In the process, he examines timely issues about the tense and intricate relationship between religion and politics. Even prior to George W. Bush's "faith-based initiative," debates about abortion, family values, welfare reform, and environmental degradation were informed by religious language and ideas.
Download or read book Prophets and Patriots written by Ruth Braunstein and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction -- Becoming active citizens -- Narratives of active citizenship -- Putting faith in action -- Holding government accountable -- Styles of active citizenship -- Conclusion
Download or read book Under the Prophet in Utah the National Menace of a Political Priestcraft written by Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Under the Prophet in Utah; the National Menace of a Political Priestcraft" by Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins and Frank J. Cannon Frank Jenne Cannon was the first United States Senator from Utah who, with the help of the writer O'Higgins shared with the world the political, monetary, and social aftermath of Utah's admission into the United States. As a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, he also provided religious insight on the implications of this transitionary period.
