What's God Got to Do with the American Experiment?

What's God Got to Do with the American Experiment?
Author: E. J. Dionne
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2010-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780815719779

More than two hundred years have passed since the Constitution was written, yet Americans still cannot make up their minds whether religion is primarily private, public, or a combination of the two. This collection of essays explores the unsettled—and often unsettling—question of organized religion's role in contemporary public life. Richard N. Ostling reviews religious belief and practice in the United States in a survey of the ever-changing religious landscape, while Robert J. Blendon and others compare the political, moral, and religious values of the 1960s with those of the 1990s. Patrick Glynn and Alan Wolfe examine different religious responses to the recent presidential scandal, and James Q. Wilson, John J. DiIulio Jr., and Ram Cnaan examine the rise of faith-based social programs, including the shift of private funds to social service providers, the role of black churches in the inner city, and social and community work by urban religious congregations. Additional contributors include Taylor Branch, Kurt Schmoke, Cal Thomas, and Peter Wehner.

God and Galileo

God and Galileo
Author: David L. Block
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2019-05-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433562928

"A devastating attack upon the dominance of atheism in science today." Giovanni Fazio, Senior Physicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics The debate over the ultimate source of truth in our world often pits science against faith. In fact, some high-profile scientists today would have us abandon God entirely as a source of truth about the universe. In this book, two professional astronomers push back against this notion, arguing that the science of today is not in a position to pronounce on the existence of God—rather, our notion of truth must include both the physical and spiritual domains. Incorporating excerpts from a letter written in 1615 by famed astronomer Galileo Galilei, the authors explore the relationship between science and faith, critiquing atheistic and secular understandings of science while reminding believers that science is an important source of truth about the physical world that God created.

When God Talks Back

When God Talks Back
Author: T.M. Luhrmann
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2012-11-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0307277275

A New York Times Notable Book A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012 A bold approach to understanding the American evangelical experience from an anthropological and psychological perspective by one of the country's most prominent anthropologists. Through a series of intimate, illuminating interviews with various members of the Vineyard, an evangelical church with hundreds of congregations across the country, Tanya Luhrmann leaps into the heart of evangelical faith. Combined with scientific research that studies the effect that intensely practiced prayer can have on the mind, When God Talks Back examines how normal, sensible people—from college students to accountants to housewives, all functioning perfectly well within our society—can attest to having the signs and wonders of the supernatural become as quotidian and as ordinary as laundry. Astute, sensitive, and extraordinarily measured in its approach to the interface between science and religion, Luhrmann's book is sure to generate as much conversation as it will praise.

Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic

Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
Author: Matthew Stewart
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0393244318

Longlisted for the National Book Award. Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy? America’s founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyranny of supernatural religion. Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart brilliantly tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America’s revolutionaries drew their inspiration. In the writings of Spinoza, Lucretius, and other great philosophers, Stewart recovers the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “the pursuit of happiness,” and the radical political theory with which the American experiment in self-government began.

God's Democracy

God's Democracy
Author: Emilio Gentile
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2008-09-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0313353379

In God's Democracy, Emilio Gentile argues that the presidency of George W. Bush sought to alter the way religion functions in American political life. Prior to the events of 9/11, the national government operated under a civil religious regime that placed a sacred umbrella over the entire country and its leading political figures. American civil religion was not only an inclusive faith, but one that provided ample room for citizens with different politics and different world views. But in the wake of 9/11, President Bush used religion to differentiate Americans on partisan lines. Relying heavily on his evangelical Christian base, he attempted to substitute for the inclusivism of the traditional American civil religion an exclusivist political religion in which Democrats were portrayed as hostile to religious values and incapable of dealing with the country's foreign enemies. This book provides the historical context for this attempted transformation, and shows in a detailed way how the Bush administration pursued it. Gentile concludes by posing the question of whether this radical shift in the way Americans understand themselves religiously will prove permanent. Unlike other works that strive to show how religion has generally come to be treated in American politics, this new book looks more squarely at the Bush Administration and its attempt to shut out Democrats from the political process by invoking religious language and ideals. He goes on to consider the political exclusivism and whether or not it will persist beyond Bush's tenure.

The Religious Left and Church-State Relations

The Religious Left and Church-State Relations
Author: Steven H. Shiffrin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2009-08-16
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0691141444

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.

God Has a Name

God Has a Name
Author: John Mark Comer
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2024-10-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400249570

What you believe about God sets the foundation of the person you will become. In God Has a Name, pastor and New York Times bestselling author John Mark Comer invites you to rethink many of the prevalent myths and misconceptions about God and weigh them against what God actually tells us about himself. After all, what you believe about God will ultimately shape the type of person you become. We all live at the mercy of our ideas, and nowhere is this more true than our ideas about God. The problem is many of our ideas about God are wrong. Not all wrong, but wrong enough to form our souls in detrimental and disheartening ways. God Has a Name is a simple yet profound guide to understanding God in a new light--focusing on what God says about himself in the Bible. This one shift has the potential to radically alter how you relate to God, not as a doctrine, but as a relational being who responds to you in an elastic, back-and-forth way. John Mark Comer takes you line by line through Exodus 34:6-8--Yahweh's self-revelation on Mount Sinai, one of the most quoted passages in the Bible. Along the way, Comer addresses some of the most profound questions he came across as he studied these noted lines in Exodus, including: Why do we feel this gap between us and God? Could it be that a lot of what we think about God is wrong? Not all wrong, but wrong enough to mess up how we relate to him? What if our "God" is really a projection of our own identity, ideas, and desires? What if the real God is different, but far better than we could ever imagine? No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, God Has a Name invites you to step into a fresh and biblically rooted vision of who God is that has the potential to alter your life with God and shape who you become.

Piety, Politics, and Pluralism

Piety, Politics, and Pluralism
Author: Mary C. Segers
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2002
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780742515154

Piety, Politics, and Pluralism skillfully confronts the question: Is liberal democracy hostile to religion or is it compatible with the rights of believers? Prominent scholars analyze the controversy about religious freedom by examining two areas at the intersection of religion and politics in contemporary American society: the Supreme Court's 1990 decision in Oregon v. Smith and the events of the 2000 presidential campaign. Their essays remind us that in an increasingly pluralistic society, Americans must work continually to reconcile religious commitment and political obligation. Piety, Politics, and Pluralism is a groundbreaking work that will be indispensable to students of religion and politics, American politics, and constitutional law.

Church-State Issues in America Today

Church-State Issues in America Today
Author: Ann W. Duncan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 841
Release: 2007-12-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 157356754X

Church and state issues are in the news now more than ever before. Political and religious leaders alike are negotiating shaky ground as they balance their religious/moral and political perspectives with their roles as leaders. New technologies push the boundaries of moral consensus by creating new controversies such as those involving stem-cell research and medical measures to sustain or end the lives of the terminally ill. The Supreme Court continues to work to clarify the fuzzy line between religion and politics as it addresses cases regarding abortion, school prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, among other issues. Further controversies only lead to further divisions among Americans. Church and state issues are in the news now more than ever before. Political and religious leaders alike are negotiating on shaky ground as they balance their religious/moral and political perspectives with their roles as leaders. New technologies push the boundaries of moral consensus by creating new controversies such as those involving stem-cell research and medical measures to sustain or end the lives of the terminally ill. The Supreme Court continues to work to clarify the fuzzy line between religion and politics as it addresses cases regarding abortion, school prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance, among other issues. Further controversies only lead to further divisions among Americans. At the beginning of the 21st century, there are as many interpretations of this separation as there are interpretations of particular issues such as abortion or school vouchers. This three-volume collection summarizes the history and current status of issues involving the separation of church and state through chapters examining the backgrounds, relevant constitutional concerns, and variety of perspectives on specific controversies. Framed by a general discussion of the history of the separation between church and state and through careful attention to subjects such as capital punishment, gay marriage, and clergy support of political leaders, there emerges an incredibly complex, enlightening, and provocative picture for anyone with an interest in the unique nature of religion in the United States of America.

One Nation Undecided

One Nation Undecided
Author: Peter H. Schuck
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0691191581

"At a time of deep social and political division, along comes a much-needed book to steer us toward solutions to five very difficult national problems. There could be no better guide for this endeavor than Peter Schuck, one of the clearest and most thoughtful legal and policy scholars of this or any generation."--Robert E. Litan, author of Trillion Dollar Economists.s.