Author: David S. Gutterman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136339272
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Profound demographic and cultural changes in American society over the last half century have unsettled conventional understandings of the relationship between religious and political identity. The "Protestant mainline" continues to shrink in numbers, as well as in cultural and political influence. The growing population of American Muslims seek both acceptance and a firmer footing within the nation’s cultural and political imagination. Debates over contraception, same-sex relationships, and "prosperity" preaching continue to roil the waters of American cultural politics. Perhaps most remarkably, the fastest-rising religious demographic in most public opinion surveys is "none," giving rise to a new demographic that Gutterman and Murphy name "Religious Independents." Even the evangelical movement, which powerfully re-entered American politics during the 1970s and 1980s and retains a strong foothold in the Republican Party, has undergone generational turnover and no longer represents a monolithic political bloc. Political Religion and Religious Politics:Navigating Identities in the United States explores the multifaceted implications of these developments by examining a series of contentious issues in contemporary American politics. Gutterman and Murphy take up the controversy over the "Ground Zero Mosque," the political and legal battles over the contraception mandate in the Affordable Health Care Act and the ensuing Supreme Court Hobby Lobby decision, the national response to the Great Recession and the rise in economic inequality, and battles over the public school curricula, seizing on these divisive challenges as opportunities to illuminate the changing role of religion in American public life. Placing the current moment into historical perspective, and reflecting on the possible future of religion, politics, and cultural conflict in the United States, Gutterman and Murphy explore the cultural and political dynamics of evolving notions of national and religious identity. They argue that questions of religion are questions of identity -- personal, social, and political identity -- and that they function in many of the same ways as race, sex, gender, and ethnicity in the construction of personal meaning, the fostering of solidarity with others, and the conflict they can occasion in the political arena.
Faith in Politics
Author: Bryan T. McGraw
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139487728
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
No account of contemporary politics can ignore religion. The liberal democratic tradition in political thought has long treated religion with some suspicion, regarding it as a source of division and instability. Faith in Politics shows how such arguments are unpersuasive and dependent on questionable empirical claims: rather than being a serious threat to democracies' legitimacy, stability and freedom, religion can be democratically constructive. Using historical cases of important religious political movements to add empirical weight, Bryan McGraw suggests that religion will remain a significant political force for the foreseeable future and that pluralist democracies would do well to welcome rather than marginalize it.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139487728
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
No account of contemporary politics can ignore religion. The liberal democratic tradition in political thought has long treated religion with some suspicion, regarding it as a source of division and instability. Faith in Politics shows how such arguments are unpersuasive and dependent on questionable empirical claims: rather than being a serious threat to democracies' legitimacy, stability and freedom, religion can be democratically constructive. Using historical cases of important religious political movements to add empirical weight, Bryan McGraw suggests that religion will remain a significant political force for the foreseeable future and that pluralist democracies would do well to welcome rather than marginalize it.
Religion And Politics In America
Author: Robert Booth Fowler
Publisher: Westview Press
ISBN: 9780813334905
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Every day we hear more about the key role religion plays in American politics. But exactly what is the relationship in the United States between religious belief and practice and the exercise of politics? Should we be alarmed or encouraged by the contemporary situation? And what are the historical and cultural roots of religious activism?In the revised and updated second edition of this accessible and engaging survey, Robert Booth Fowler, Allen D. Hertzke and Laura R. Olson provide a lively and straightforward treatment of the politics of religion in American public life today. They provide the historical context, the broader sociological aspects of religion and politics, and the range of strategic choices open to different religious actors, enabling the reader to reach informed and balanced judgments about these controversial issues.The authors offer a balanced and wide-ranging text. They honor both behavioral and philosophical approaches to the study of religion in society; they dismiss neither conservative cultural values nor liberal demands for social justice. The book is driven not by ideology or any grand schemes but rather by the desire to provide reliable knowledge about religion and politics on a careful case-by-case basis that will enable students to understand today's developments and to adapt to those of tomorrow.From the presidency to the courts, from local school battles to congressional debates, from public opinion and voting behavior (including the 1996 elections) to the shaping of culture, this text provides a window to the contemporary scene. It assesses the politics of Roman Catholics, evangelical Protestants, liberal Protestants, and Jews. It also examines important but often neglected subjects such as women and religion, African American religion, Islam, less traditional faiths, and cults.Arguing that religion and politics are much more than institutions and political behavior, Fowler, Hertzke and Olson emphasize the roles of values and attitudes in social and cultural patterns and in conflicts and agreements lived out day to day in communities.Well written, evenhanded, and consistently generous in its treatment of opposing views, Religion and Politics in America is now the ideal text introduce students to the volatile mix of politics and religion in the late twentieth-century and beyond.
Publisher: Westview Press
ISBN: 9780813334905
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Every day we hear more about the key role religion plays in American politics. But exactly what is the relationship in the United States between religious belief and practice and the exercise of politics? Should we be alarmed or encouraged by the contemporary situation? And what are the historical and cultural roots of religious activism?In the revised and updated second edition of this accessible and engaging survey, Robert Booth Fowler, Allen D. Hertzke and Laura R. Olson provide a lively and straightforward treatment of the politics of religion in American public life today. They provide the historical context, the broader sociological aspects of religion and politics, and the range of strategic choices open to different religious actors, enabling the reader to reach informed and balanced judgments about these controversial issues.The authors offer a balanced and wide-ranging text. They honor both behavioral and philosophical approaches to the study of religion in society; they dismiss neither conservative cultural values nor liberal demands for social justice. The book is driven not by ideology or any grand schemes but rather by the desire to provide reliable knowledge about religion and politics on a careful case-by-case basis that will enable students to understand today's developments and to adapt to those of tomorrow.From the presidency to the courts, from local school battles to congressional debates, from public opinion and voting behavior (including the 1996 elections) to the shaping of culture, this text provides a window to the contemporary scene. It assesses the politics of Roman Catholics, evangelical Protestants, liberal Protestants, and Jews. It also examines important but often neglected subjects such as women and religion, African American religion, Islam, less traditional faiths, and cults.Arguing that religion and politics are much more than institutions and political behavior, Fowler, Hertzke and Olson emphasize the roles of values and attitudes in social and cultural patterns and in conflicts and agreements lived out day to day in communities.Well written, evenhanded, and consistently generous in its treatment of opposing views, Religion and Politics in America is now the ideal text introduce students to the volatile mix of politics and religion in the late twentieth-century and beyond.
Politics as Religion
Author: Emilio Gentile
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400827213
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
Emilio Gentile, an internationally renowned authority on fascism and totalitarianism, argues that politics over the past two centuries has often taken on the features of religion, claiming as its own the prerogative of defining the fundamental purpose and meaning of human life. Secular political entities such as the nation, the state, race, class, and the party became the focus of myths, rituals, and commandments and gradually became objects of faith, loyalty, and reverence. Gentile examines this "sacralization of politics," as he defines it, both historically and theoretically, seeking to identify the different ways in which political regimes as diverse as fascism, communism, and liberal democracy have ultimately depended, like religions, on faith, myths, rites, and symbols. Gentile maintains that the sacralization of politics as a modern phenomenon is distinct from the politicization of religion that has arisen from militant religious fundamentalism. Sacralized politics may be democratic, in the form of a civil religion, or it may be totalitarian, in the form of a political religion. Using this conceptual distinction, and moving from America to Europe, and from Africa to Asia, Gentile presents a unique comparative history of civil and political religions from the American and French Revolutions, through nationalism and socialism, democracy and totalitarianism, fascism and communism, up to the present day. It is also a fascinating book for understanding the sacralization of politics after 9/11.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400827213
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
Emilio Gentile, an internationally renowned authority on fascism and totalitarianism, argues that politics over the past two centuries has often taken on the features of religion, claiming as its own the prerogative of defining the fundamental purpose and meaning of human life. Secular political entities such as the nation, the state, race, class, and the party became the focus of myths, rituals, and commandments and gradually became objects of faith, loyalty, and reverence. Gentile examines this "sacralization of politics," as he defines it, both historically and theoretically, seeking to identify the different ways in which political regimes as diverse as fascism, communism, and liberal democracy have ultimately depended, like religions, on faith, myths, rites, and symbols. Gentile maintains that the sacralization of politics as a modern phenomenon is distinct from the politicization of religion that has arisen from militant religious fundamentalism. Sacralized politics may be democratic, in the form of a civil religion, or it may be totalitarian, in the form of a political religion. Using this conceptual distinction, and moving from America to Europe, and from Africa to Asia, Gentile presents a unique comparative history of civil and political religions from the American and French Revolutions, through nationalism and socialism, democracy and totalitarianism, fascism and communism, up to the present day. It is also a fascinating book for understanding the sacralization of politics after 9/11.
From Politics to the Pews
Author: Michele F. Margolis
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022655581X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
One of the most substantial divides in American politics is the “God gap.” Religious voters tend to identify with and support the Republican Party, while secular voters generally support the Democratic Party. Conventional wisdom suggests that religious differences between Republicans and Democrats have produced this gap, with voters sorting themselves into the party that best represents their religious views. Michele F. Margolis offers a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom, arguing that the relationship between religion and politics is far from a one-way street that starts in the church and ends at the ballot box. Margolis contends that political identity has a profound effect on social identity, including religion. Whether a person chooses to identify as religious and the extent of their involvement in a religious community are, in part, a response to political surroundings. In today’s climate of political polarization, partisan actors also help reinforce the relationship between religion and politics, as Democratic and Republican elites stake out divergent positions on moral issues and use religious faith to varying degrees when reaching out to voters.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022655581X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
One of the most substantial divides in American politics is the “God gap.” Religious voters tend to identify with and support the Republican Party, while secular voters generally support the Democratic Party. Conventional wisdom suggests that religious differences between Republicans and Democrats have produced this gap, with voters sorting themselves into the party that best represents their religious views. Michele F. Margolis offers a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom, arguing that the relationship between religion and politics is far from a one-way street that starts in the church and ends at the ballot box. Margolis contends that political identity has a profound effect on social identity, including religion. Whether a person chooses to identify as religious and the extent of their involvement in a religious community are, in part, a response to political surroundings. In today’s climate of political polarization, partisan actors also help reinforce the relationship between religion and politics, as Democratic and Republican elites stake out divergent positions on moral issues and use religious faith to varying degrees when reaching out to voters.
Religion and Political Power
Author: Gustavo Benavides
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791400272
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
This book explores the interaction between two of the most charged topics in the modern world, religion and politics. It shows the inextricable connection between religious attitudes and representations, and political activities. After an introductory chapter explores theoretically the religious articulations of political power, the authors examine the role played by religion in the current political situation in several countries. Approaching these cases as anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists, the authors make visible the dialectical relationship between religion and the pursuit of political poweron the one hand, the political significance of religious choices, and on the other, the almost unavoidable need to articulate in religious terms a groups attempt to acquire, maintain, or expand political power.
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791400272
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
This book explores the interaction between two of the most charged topics in the modern world, religion and politics. It shows the inextricable connection between religious attitudes and representations, and political activities. After an introductory chapter explores theoretically the religious articulations of political power, the authors examine the role played by religion in the current political situation in several countries. Approaching these cases as anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists, the authors make visible the dialectical relationship between religion and the pursuit of political poweron the one hand, the political significance of religious choices, and on the other, the almost unavoidable need to articulate in religious terms a groups attempt to acquire, maintain, or expand political power.
Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion
Author: Anna L. Peterson
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791431825
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion explores the ways that Salvadoran Catholics sought to make sense of political violence in their country in the 1970s and 1980s by constructing a theological ethics that could both explain repression in religious terms and propose specific responses to violence. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book highlights the ways that progressive Catholicism offered a justification and tools for political resistance in the face of extraordinary destruction. Using the case of Catholicism in El Salvador, the book explores the nature of religious responses to social crisis and the ways that ordinary believers construct and strive to live by ethical systems. By highlighting the importance of theological belief, of narrative, and of religious rationality in political mobilization, it touches questions of general interest to readers concerned with the social role of religion and ethics.
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791431825
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion explores the ways that Salvadoran Catholics sought to make sense of political violence in their country in the 1970s and 1980s by constructing a theological ethics that could both explain repression in religious terms and propose specific responses to violence. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book highlights the ways that progressive Catholicism offered a justification and tools for political resistance in the face of extraordinary destruction. Using the case of Catholicism in El Salvador, the book explores the nature of religious responses to social crisis and the ways that ordinary believers construct and strive to live by ethical systems. By highlighting the importance of theological belief, of narrative, and of religious rationality in political mobilization, it touches questions of general interest to readers concerned with the social role of religion and ethics.
The Political Origins of Religious Liberty
Author: Anthony Gill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521848145
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
Throughout history, governments have attempted to control religious organizations and limit religious freedom. However, over the past two hundred years the world has witnessed an expansion of religious liberty. What explains this rise in religious freedom? Anthony Gill argues that political leaders are more likely to allow religious freedom when such laws affect their ability to stay in power, and/or when religious freedoms are seen to enhance the economic well-being of their country.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521848145
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
Throughout history, governments have attempted to control religious organizations and limit religious freedom. However, over the past two hundred years the world has witnessed an expansion of religious liberty. What explains this rise in religious freedom? Anthony Gill argues that political leaders are more likely to allow religious freedom when such laws affect their ability to stay in power, and/or when religious freedoms are seen to enhance the economic well-being of their country.
Political Religion and Religious Politics
Author: David S. Gutterman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136339272
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Profound demographic and cultural changes in American society over the last half century have unsettled conventional understandings of the relationship between religious and political identity. The "Protestant mainline" continues to shrink in numbers, as well as in cultural and political influence. The growing population of American Muslims seek both acceptance and a firmer footing within the nation’s cultural and political imagination. Debates over contraception, same-sex relationships, and "prosperity" preaching continue to roil the waters of American cultural politics. Perhaps most remarkably, the fastest-rising religious demographic in most public opinion surveys is "none," giving rise to a new demographic that Gutterman and Murphy name "Religious Independents." Even the evangelical movement, which powerfully re-entered American politics during the 1970s and 1980s and retains a strong foothold in the Republican Party, has undergone generational turnover and no longer represents a monolithic political bloc. Political Religion and Religious Politics:Navigating Identities in the United States explores the multifaceted implications of these developments by examining a series of contentious issues in contemporary American politics. Gutterman and Murphy take up the controversy over the "Ground Zero Mosque," the political and legal battles over the contraception mandate in the Affordable Health Care Act and the ensuing Supreme Court Hobby Lobby decision, the national response to the Great Recession and the rise in economic inequality, and battles over the public school curricula, seizing on these divisive challenges as opportunities to illuminate the changing role of religion in American public life. Placing the current moment into historical perspective, and reflecting on the possible future of religion, politics, and cultural conflict in the United States, Gutterman and Murphy explore the cultural and political dynamics of evolving notions of national and religious identity. They argue that questions of religion are questions of identity -- personal, social, and political identity -- and that they function in many of the same ways as race, sex, gender, and ethnicity in the construction of personal meaning, the fostering of solidarity with others, and the conflict they can occasion in the political arena.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136339272
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Profound demographic and cultural changes in American society over the last half century have unsettled conventional understandings of the relationship between religious and political identity. The "Protestant mainline" continues to shrink in numbers, as well as in cultural and political influence. The growing population of American Muslims seek both acceptance and a firmer footing within the nation’s cultural and political imagination. Debates over contraception, same-sex relationships, and "prosperity" preaching continue to roil the waters of American cultural politics. Perhaps most remarkably, the fastest-rising religious demographic in most public opinion surveys is "none," giving rise to a new demographic that Gutterman and Murphy name "Religious Independents." Even the evangelical movement, which powerfully re-entered American politics during the 1970s and 1980s and retains a strong foothold in the Republican Party, has undergone generational turnover and no longer represents a monolithic political bloc. Political Religion and Religious Politics:Navigating Identities in the United States explores the multifaceted implications of these developments by examining a series of contentious issues in contemporary American politics. Gutterman and Murphy take up the controversy over the "Ground Zero Mosque," the political and legal battles over the contraception mandate in the Affordable Health Care Act and the ensuing Supreme Court Hobby Lobby decision, the national response to the Great Recession and the rise in economic inequality, and battles over the public school curricula, seizing on these divisive challenges as opportunities to illuminate the changing role of religion in American public life. Placing the current moment into historical perspective, and reflecting on the possible future of religion, politics, and cultural conflict in the United States, Gutterman and Murphy explore the cultural and political dynamics of evolving notions of national and religious identity. They argue that questions of religion are questions of identity -- personal, social, and political identity -- and that they function in many of the same ways as race, sex, gender, and ethnicity in the construction of personal meaning, the fostering of solidarity with others, and the conflict they can occasion in the political arena.
Religion and Politics in the United States
Author: Kenneth D. Wald
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442225556
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
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.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442225556
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
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.
When Religion and Politics Mix
Author: Kenneth McIntosh
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 120
Book Description
Examines the balance between politics and religion.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 120
Book Description
Examines the balance between politics and religion.