Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left written by L. Benjamin Rolsky and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades now, Americans have believed that their country is deeply divided by “culture wars” waged between religious conservatives and secular liberals. In most instances, Protestant conservatives have been cast as the instigators of such warfare, while religious liberals have been largely ignored. In this book, L. Benjamin Rolsky examines the ways in which American liberalism has helped shape cultural conflict since the 1970s through the story of how television writer and producer Norman Lear galvanized the religious left into action. The creator of comedies such as All in the Family and Maude, Lear was spurred to found the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in response to the rise of the religious right. Rolsky offers engaged readings of Lear’s iconic sitcoms and published writings, considering them as an expression of what he calls the spiritual politics of the religious left. He shows how prime-time television became a focus of political dispute and demonstrates how Lear’s emergence as an interfaith activist catalyzed ecumenical Protestants, Catholics, and Jews who were determined to push back against conservatism’s ascent. Rolsky concludes that Lear’s political involvement exemplified religious liberals’ commitment to engaging politics on explicitly moral grounds in defense of what they saw as the public interest. An interdisciplinary analysis of the definitive cultural clashes of our fractious times, The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left foregrounds the foundational roles played by popular culture, television, and media in America’s religious history.
Download or read book The Religious Left and Church State Relations written by Steven H. Shiffrin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Religious Left and Church-State Relations, noted constitutional law scholar Steven Shiffrin argues that the religious left, not the secular left, is best equipped to lead the battle against the religious right on questions of church and state in America today. Explaining that the chosen rhetoric of secular liberals is poorly equipped to argue against religious conservatives, Shiffrin shows that all progressives, religious and secular, must appeal to broader values promoting religious liberty. He demonstrates that the separation of church and state serves to protect religions from political manipulation while tight connections between church and state compromise the integrity of religious institutions. Shiffrin discusses the pluralistic foundations of the religion clauses in the First Amendment and asserts that the clauses cannot be confined to the protection of liberty, equality, or equal liberty. He explores the constitutional framework of religious liberalism, applying it to controversial examples, including the Pledge of Allegiance, the government's use of religious symbols, the teaching of evolution in public schools, and school vouchers. Shiffrin examines how the approaches of secular liberalism toward church-state relations have been misguided philosophically and politically, and he illustrates why theological arguments hold an important democratic position--not in courtrooms or halls of government, but in the public dialogue. The book contends that the great issue of American religious politics is not whether religions should be supported at all, but how religions can best be strengthened and preserved.
Download or read book Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century written by Walter Rauschenbusch and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1907, Christianity and the Social Crisis outsold every other religious volume for three years and then became a mainstay for Christians and other religious people seriously interested in social justice, inspiring leaders such as Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century brings this classic to a new generation with the addition of new essays by leading religious thinkers who have continued the legacy of Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel Movement: Phyllis Trible responding to "The Historical Roots of Christianity" Tony Campolo responding to "The Social Aims of Jesus" Joan Chittister responding to "The Social Impetus of Primitive Christianity" Stanley Hauerwas responding to "Why Has Christianity Never Undertaken the Work of Social Reconstruction?" Cornel West responding to "The Present Crisis" James A. Forbes Jr. responding to "The Stake of the Church in the Social Movement" Jim Wallis responding to "What to Do"
Download or read book The Separation of Church and State written by Forrest Church and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, a primer of essential writings about one of the cornerstones of our democracy by the original authors of the Constitution, edited by preeminant liberal theologian Forrest Church. Americans will never stop debating the question of church-state separation, and such debates invariably lead back to the nation’s beginnings and the founders’ intent. The Separation of Church and State presents a basic collection of the founders’ teachings on this topic. This concise primer gets past the rhetoric that surrounds the current debate, placing the founders’ vivid writings on religious liberty in historical perspective. Edited and with running commentary by Forrest Church, this important collection informs anyone curious about the original blueprint for our country and its government.
Download or read book Religion in American Politics written by Frank Lambert and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-21 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed author of The Barbary Wars offers a critical analysis of the often uneasy relationship between religion and politics in the United States from the Founding Fathers to the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Disestablishment and Religious Dissent written by Carl H. Esbeck and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On May 10, 1776, the Second Continental Congress sitting in Philadelphia adopted a Resolution which set in motion a round of constitution making in the colonies, several of which soon declared themselves sovereign states and severed all remaining ties to the British Crown. In forming these written constitutions, the delegates to the state conventions were forced to address the issue of church-state relations. Each colony had unique and differing traditions of church-state relations rooted in the colony’s peoples, their country of origin, and religion. This definitive volume, comprising twenty-one original essays by eminent historians and political scientists, is a comprehensive state-by-state account of disestablishment in the original thirteen states, as well as a look at similar events in the soon-to-be-admitted states of Vermont, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Also considered are disestablishment in Ohio (the first state admitted from the Northwest Territory), Louisiana and Missouri (the first states admitted from the Louisiana Purchase), and Florida (wrestled from Spain under U.S. pressure). The volume makes a unique scholarly contribution by recounting in detail the process of disestablishment in each of the colonies, as well as religion’s constitutional and legal place in the new states of the federal republic.
Download or read book God s Own Party written by Daniel K. Williams and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012-07-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In God's Own Party, Daniel K. Williams presents the first comprehensive history of the Christian Right, uncovering how evangelicals came to see the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could reclaim America as a Christian nation.
Download or read book The Political Role of Religion in the United States written by Stephen D Johnson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-06-02 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political importance of Christian churches in the 1 980s is the focus of this wide-ranging book of readings. Contributors begin by placing the current involvement of religious groups in politics in historical perspective and then analyze the politics and ideologies of both the religious right and religious left. They al30 explore specific issues, including the separation of church and state, the impact of religious interest groups on public policy, religion and abortion, and feminist theological views.
Download or read book Religion and the Cold War written by D. Kirby and published by Springer. This book was released on 2002-12-13 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although seen widely as the twentieth-century's great religious war, as a conflict between the god-fearing and the godless, the religious dimension of the Cold War has never been subjected to a scholarly critique. This unique study shows why religion is a key Cold War variable. A specially commissioned collection of new scholarship, it provides fresh insights into the complex nature of the Cold War. It has profound resonance today with the resurgence of religion as a political force in global society.
Download or read book Did America Have a Christian Founding written by Mark David Hall and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A distinguished professor debunks the assertion that America's Founders were deists who desired the strict separation of church and state and instead shows that their political ideas were profoundly influenced by their Christian convictions. In 2010, David Mark Hall gave a lecture at the Heritage Foundation entitled "Did America Have a Christian Founding?" His balanced and thoughtful approach to this controversial question caused a sensation. C-SPAN televised his talk, and an essay based on it has been downloaded more than 300,000 times. In this book, Hall expands upon this essay, making the airtight case that America's Founders were not deists. He explains why and how the Founders' views are absolutely relevant today, showing that they did not create a "godless" Constitution; that even Jefferson and Madison did not want a high wall separating church and state; that most Founders believed the government should encourage Christianity; and that they embraced a robust understanding of religious liberty for biblical and theological reasons. This compelling and utterly persuasive book will convince skeptics and equip believers and conservatives to defend the idea that Christian thought was crucial to the nation's founding--and that this benefits all of us, whatever our faith (or lack of faith).
Download or read book Humanum Genus written by Catholic Church. Pope (1878-1903 : Leo XIII) and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Religion and Politics in the United States written by Kenneth D. Wald and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From marriage equality, to gun control, to immigration reform and the threat of war, religion plays a fascinating and crucial part in our nation's political process and in our culture at large. Now in its seventh edition, Religion and Politics in the United States includes analyses of the nation's most pressing political matters regarding religious freedom, and the ways in which that essential constitutional freedom situates itself within modern America. The book also explores the ways that religion has affected the orientation of partisan politics in the United States. Through a detailed review of the political attitudes and behaviors of major religious and minority faith traditions, the book establishes that religion continues to be a major part of the American cultural and political milieu while explaining that it must interact with many other factors to influence political outcomes in the United States.
Download or read book Nations under God written by Anna M. Grzymała-Busse and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-27 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why churches in some democratic nations wield enormous political power while churches in other democracies don't In some religious countries, churches have drafted constitutions, restricted abortion, and controlled education. In others, church influence on public policy is far weaker. Why? Nations under God argues that where religious and national identities have historically fused, churches gain enormous moral authority—and covert institutional access. These powerful churches then shape policy in backrooms and secret meetings instead of through open democratic channels such as political parties or the ballot box. Through an in-depth historical analysis of six Christian democracies that share similar religious profiles yet differ in their policy outcomes—Ireland and Italy, Poland and Croatia, and the United States and Canada—Anna Grzymała-Busse examines how churches influenced education, abortion, divorce, stem cell research, and same-sex marriage. She argues that churches gain the greatest political advantage when they appear to be above politics. Because institutional access is covert, they retain their moral authority and their reputation as defenders of the national interest and the common good. Nations under God shows how powerful church officials in Ireland, Canada, and Poland have directly written legislation, vetoed policies, and vetted high-ranking officials. It demonstrates that religiosity itself is not enough for churches to influence politics—churches in Italy and Croatia, for example, are not as influential as we might think—and that churches allied to political parties, such as in the United States, have less influence than their notoriety suggests.
Download or read book Progressive Religious written by Robert Patrick Jones and published by Robert P. Jones. This book was released on 2008 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In recent years, Americans have become frustrated with the troubled relationship between religion and politics: an exclusive claim on faith and values from the right and a radical divorce of faith from politics on the left. Now a new group of religious leaders is re-envisioning religion in public life and blazing a trail that goes beyond partisan politics to work for a more just and inclusive society. Progressive & Religious draws on nearly one hundred in-depth interviews with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist leaders to tell the story of this dynamic, emerging movement." "Robert P. Jones explains how progressive religious leaders are tapping the deep connections between religion and social justice to work on issues like poverty and workers' rights, the environment, health care, pluralism, and human rights."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book State Neutrality written by Kerry O'Halloran and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: O'Halloran provides a comparative evaluation of contemporary law as it relates to religion in six developed nations.
Download or read book Good and Bad Ways to Think about Religion and Politics written by Robert Benne and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2010-09-23 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There is nothing greater than indignation to stimulate a writer to write." says Robert Benne, "and my outrage has been stirred mightily by reading so many wrongheaded 'takes' on how religion and politics ought to be related." --
Download or read book Secular Surge written by David E. Campbell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-03 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American society is rapidly secularizing–a radical departure from its historically high level of religiosity–and politics is a big part of the reason. Just as, forty years ago, the Religious Right arose as a new political movement, today secularism is gaining traction as a distinct and politically energized identity. This book examines the political causes and political consequences of this secular surge, drawing on a wealth of original data. The authors show that secular identity is in part a reaction to the Religious Right. However, while the political impact of secularism is profound, there may not yet be a Secular Left to counterbalance the Religious Right. Secularism has introduced new tensions within the Democratic Party while adding oxygen to political polarization between Democrats and Republicans. Still there may be opportunities to reach common ground if politicians seek to forge coalitions that encompass both secular and religious Americans.
