Religion and Public Life in the South

Religion and Public Life in the South
Author: Charles Reagan Wilson
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780759106352

In July 2002 chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court had a two-ton monument of the Ten Commandments placed into the rotunda of the Montgomery state judicial building. But this action is only a recent case in the long history of religiously inspired public movements in the American South. From the Civil War to the Scopes Trial to the Moral Majority, white Southern evangelicals have taken ideas they see as drawn from the Christian Scriptures and tried to make them into public law. But blacks, women, subregions, and other religious groups too vie for power within and outside this Southern Religious Establishment. Religion and Public Life in the South gives voice to both the establishment and its dissenters and shows why more than any other region of the country, religion drives public debate in the South.

Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Region

Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Region
Author: Wade Clark Roof
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2005
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780759106390

"Pretty much like the rest of the country, only more so." This quip from Wallace Stegner well-represents the Pacific region's religious culture. California, Nevada, and Hawaii emerged more recently, more quickly and with more diversity and fluidity than the other United States. Although influenced by Mexican Catholicism, Native Traditions, Asian Religions, and Euro-American Christianity, no religious tradition dominates, and a secular ethos usually reigns. But this very religious indifference makes California and the rest of the region open to all sorts of missionary movements and religious innovations. New organizational forms, new spiritual therapies, and new religious hybrids all compete for residents' attention along with secular ways for making meaning. With all these options, residents of the region mix, match, and move between religious identities more than other Americans. Without ignoring its diversity, Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Region highlights the key aspects of the region's fluctuating religions and its spirituality's impact on political life.

Religion and Public Life in New England

Religion and Public Life in New England
Author: Andrew Walsh
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780759106291

Although stoical New Englanders may not be showy about it, religion continues to play a powerful role in their culture. In fact, their very reticence to discuss religion may stem from long-standing religious divisions in the region. Examining Catholics and Protestants, as well as Conservative Protestants, African Americans, and Jews, this third volume in the Religion by Region series provides a very readable account of religion in this most regional of U.S. regions.

Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest

Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest
Author: Patricia O'Connell Killen
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2004-03-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0759115753

When asked their religious identification, more people answer 'none' in the Pacific Northwest than in any other region of the United States. But this does not mean that the region's religious institutions are without power or that Northwesterners who do attend no place of worship are without spiritual commitments. With no dominant denomination, Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, adherents of Pacific Rim religious traditions, indigenous groups, spiritual environmentalists, and secularists must vie or sometimes must cooperate with each other to address the regions' pressing economic, environmental, and social issues. One cannot understand this complex region without understanding the fluid religious commitments of its inhabitants. And one cannot understand religion in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska without Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest.

Religion and Public Life in the Mountain West

Religion and Public Life in the Mountain West
Author: Mark Silk
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2004-05-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0759115591

Huge mountain ranges and vast uninhabited areas characterize the Mountain West. The region is home to several dense urban centers, but there is enough space between cities for three very distinct religious cultures to develop. Arizona and New Mexico's religious public life is still dominated by the Catholic church which was in place three centuries before these areas became U.S. states. Mormons came to Utah and Idaho in the 19th century to set up their own church-state and only later were admitted to the Union. Religious minorities from Native Americans to 'mainstream' Protestants must contend with these religious establishments. In the third subregion of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana no one religious body dominates and many inhabitants claim no religious affiliation at all. Religion and Public Life in the Mountain West explores these three distinct religious regions but then goes on to see how they work together and what they have in common.

Religion and Public Life in the Midwest

Religion and Public Life in the Midwest
Author: Philip L. Barlow
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780759106314

Not just in the middle geographically, the Midwest represents the American average in terms of beliefs, attitudes, and values. The region's religious portrait matches the national religious portrait more closely than any other region. But far from making the Midwest dull, "average" means most every religious group and religious issue are represented in this region. Unlike other volumes in the series, Religion and Public Life in the Midwest includes a chapter devoted to a single city (Chicago), a chapter on a single Mainline Protestant denomination (Lutherans), and a chapter on religious variations in urban, surburan, and rural settings. This fourth book in the Religion by Region series does not neglect the pervasive image of the "typical" Midwesterner, but it does let the region's marbled religious diversity come through.

Religion and American Politics

Religion and American Politics
Author: Mark A. Noll
Publisher:
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195317157

These essays examine how religious beliefs and practices have shaped political thought and behaviour (and vice versa), and how in certain periods religious and political thought has coincided or moved in opposition, and how minority perspectives have challenged majority views.

America's Religions

America's Religions
Author: Peter W. Williams
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 706
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 025207551X

A panoramic introduction to religion in America, newly revised and updated