Religion and Politics in the United States

by Wald, Kenneth D.; Calhoun-brown, Allison

• ISBN13: 9781442201521
• ISBN10: 1442201525
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-01
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc

Summary

Religion and Politics in the United States, Sixth Edition, offers a comprehensive account of the role of religious ideas, institutions and communities in American life. 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 impact political outcomes in the United States. The sixth edition reviews the role of religion in the 2008 election, and includes fully up-to-date coverage of how religion informs the civil rights struggles of women and gay Americans.

Author Biography

Kenneth D. Wald is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is coeditor of the Cambridge University Press series Religion, Politics, and Social Theory and a member of the editorial board of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Allison Calhoun-Brown is associate professor of political science at Georgia State University. Her research and teaching interests include public opinion, religion and politics, and African American politics.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
A Secular Society?	p. 1
The Puzzle of Religious Vitality	p. 4
The Persistence of Religion	p. 8
Stability or Change?	p. 13
Possible Explanations	p. 16
Why the United States?	p. 18
Religion in the American Content	p. 23
Understanding Religion	p. 24
Patterns of Religious Affiliation	p. 26
Basic Political Tendencies	p. 31
Religion and American Political Culture	p. 37
The Puritan Imprint on Colonial Thought	p. 38
Covenant Theology and the Right to Revolt	p. 41
Puritanism and Democracy: A Qualification	p. 44
"Total Depravity" and Institutional Restraint	p. 46
One Nation under God: A Civil Religion	p. 52
Civil Religion as a Double-Edged Sword	p. 57
One of Many Influences	p. 59
Religion and the State	p. 63
The Genesis of Church-State Conflict	p. 64
Overview of Church-State Relations	p. 67
How Far Can Government Go?	p. 73
The Judicial Record	p. 78
The Separationist Era (1940s-1970s)	p. 86
The Accommodationist Era	p. 93
The Politics of Church-State Relations	p. 98
The Constitutional Revolution in Perspective	p. 101
Mobilizing Religious Interests	p. 105
Studying Religious Interests	p. 106
Establishing Motive	p. 108
Establishing Means	p. 125
Religion and Political Action	p. 139
Religion Cultural Environment	p. 141
Institutional Context	p. 145
Partisan Political Alignments	p. 151
Influential Allies	p. 154
Policy Domain	p. 161
Religion and Public Opinion	p. 179
Economic Liberalism	p. 181
Moral-Cultural Issues	p. 183
Social Justice	p. 191
Foreign Policy	p. 195
What Culture War?
The Political Mobilization of Evangelical Protestants	p. 201
The Political Background	p. 202
Roots of the "New Christian Right"	p. 206
Building a National Movement	p. 209
Evangelical Political Action	p. 210
Organizational Transformation: The Second Generation	p. 212
Theories of Evangelical Mobilization	p. 216
The Impact of the Christian Right	p. 221
The Consequences for Public Policy	p. 222
Good Times? The Christian Right and the Bush Adminstration	p. 224
The Christian Right as a Mass Movement	p. 225
Continuity and Change in the Religious Center: Catholics, Mainline Protestants, and Jews	p. 239
Catholicism: Conflicting Political Impulses	p. 241
The Conservative Political Heritage	p. 242
The Transformation of Catholic Attitudes	p. 245
Abortion: The Catholic Response	p. 250
Is Abortion a Catholic Issue?	p. 253
The Political Traditions of Mainline Protestants	p. 259
Mainline Activism: Sources and Reaction s	p. 263
American Jews	p. 266
Religion and the Politics of Ethnic and Religious Minorities	p. 275
African American Protestants	p. 276
Latino Catholics and Protestants	p. 286
Muslim Americans	p. 291
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints	p. 299
Other Faith Traditions	p. 305
The Other Minorities: Women and Gay People	p. 309
Women, Religion, and Politics	p. 312
Homosexuals	p. 325
Religion and Homosexuality	p. 328
Religion and American Political Life	p. 345
The Case against Religious Influence in Politics	p. 346
Assessing the Evidence	p. 352
The Case for Religion in Politics	p. 358
Religion in Public Conversation	p. 367
Notes	p. 369
Reference	p. 383
Index	p. 441
About the Authors	p. 455
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