Religion and Society

Bible-Carrying Christians: Conservative Protestants and Social Power

David Harrington Watt

This book focuses on the relationship between conservative Protestants and social power in the U.S. The book, which is particularly concerned with which sorts of power relationships seem ... More

This book focuses on the relationship between conservative Protestants and social power in the U.S. The book, which is particularly concerned with which sorts of power relationships seem natural and which do not, is based on fieldwork (conducted in the early 1990s), in three Philadelphia churches: Oak Grove Church, Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, and the Philadelphia Church of Christ. The data drawn from that fieldwork suggests that in the early 1990s, Bible‐carrying Christian churches tended to naturalize (to various degrees) the authority of heterosexuals and men. The data also suggested that under certain (relatively rare) circumstances Bible‐carrying Christian churches denaturalized the authority of ministers, corporations, and nation‐states. Less

The Bible, the School, and the Constitution: The Clash that Shaped Modern Church-State Doctrine

Steven K. Green

The Bible, the School, and the Constitution traces the origins of one of the more contentious controversies heard by the United States Supreme Court: the intersection of ... More

The Bible, the School, and the Constitution traces the origins of one of the more contentious controversies heard by the United States Supreme Court: the intersection of religion and education. The book demonstrates that the legal basis for the modern Court’s decisions regarding Bible reading in the public schools and the public funding of religious schools arose during the nineteenth century, culminating in the decade following the Civil War. This controversy—called the “School Question” —coincided with the evolution of American public education and asked whether the nation should support a religiously based education system. Public education during the century faced competing pressures: a widespread belief that schooling required a moral if not religious basis; a belief among many Protestants that Catholic immigration presented a threat to Protestant culture and to republican values; the need to accommodate an increasing religious pluralism in the schools; and evolving understandings of constitutional principles. The book argues that attitudes about the relationship between religion and education were neither static nor two-dimensional (i.e., pro or con). The book makes two important points that run contrary to popular perceptions. First, the modern Supreme Court’s decisions on school funding and Bible reading did not create new legal doctrines or abolish dominant practices but built on legal concepts and educational trends that had been developing since the early nineteenth century. Second, while public reaction to a growing Catholic presence was a leading factor in this development, it was but one element in the rise of the legal doctrines the high court would embrace in the mid-twentieth century. Less

Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion

Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, Roberta Green-Ahmanson (eds)

This book analyzes media coverage of major news stories in which religion is a major component and recounts how journalist often miss, or misunderstand, these stories because they do not ... More

This book analyzes media coverage of major news stories in which religion is a major component and recounts how journalist often miss, or misunderstand, these stories because they do not take religion seriously, or misunderstand religion when they do take it seriously. Since religion is a major and growing factor in human affairs throughout the world and, hence in major news stories, including those stories often mislabeled “secular,” if reporters do not take it seriously or understand it, then they will be poorer reporters. To the extent that journalists do not grasp events’ religious dimensions, both global and local, they are hindered from, and sometimes incapable of, describing what is happening in the world around us. The book contains six case studies that each describe an important event, issue, trend, problem, or situation, seek to show the centrality of religion to the story, then outline how journalists actually covered it, and how they often got it wrong. The two concluding chapters focus on ways, both conceptual and practical, of improving coverage. Less

Bob Drinan: The Controversial Life of the First Catholic Priest Elected to Congress

Raymond A. Schroth

This book shows that the contentious mixture of religion and politics in the United States is nothing new. Four decades ago, Father Robert Drinan, the fiery Jesuit priest from Massachusetts, not only ... More

This book shows that the contentious mixture of religion and politics in the United States is nothing new. Four decades ago, Father Robert Drinan, the fiery Jesuit priest from Massachusetts, not only demonstrated against the Vietnam War, he ran for Congress as an antiwar candidate and won, going on to serve for ten years. This book includes research taken from magazine and newspaper articles and various archives and interviews with dozens of those who knew Drinan to bring forth here a life-sized portrait.Less

Bridges across an Impossible Divide: The Inner Lives of Arab and Jewish Peacemakers

Marc Gopin

This book offers an exploration of Arab/Israeli peace partnerships: unlikely friendships created among people who have long been divided by bitter resentments, deep suspicions, and ... More

This book offers an exploration of Arab/Israeli peace partnerships: unlikely friendships created among people who have long been divided by bitter resentments, deep suspicions, and violent sorrows. The book shows how the careful examination of their inner spiritual lives has enabled Jewish and Arab individuals to form peace partnerships, and that these partnerships may someday lead to peaceful coexistence. The peacemakers in this book have no formal experience in conflict resolution or diplomacy. Instead, through trial and error, they have devised their own methods of reaching out across enemy lines. The obstacles they face are unimaginable, the pressure from both sides to desist is constant, and the guilt-ridden thoughts of betrayal are pervasive and intense. Peace partners have found themselves deserted by their closest friends, family members, and neighbors. This book tells their stories—stories not of saints, but of singular people who overcame seemingly unbeatable odds in their dedication to work toward peace with their estranged neighbors. The book provides insightful analysis of the lessons to be learned from these peacebuilders, outlining the characteristics that make them successful. It argues that lasting conflict and misery between enemies is the result of an emotional, cognitive, and ethical failure to self-examine, and that the true transformation of a troubled society is brought about by the spiritual introspection of extraordinary, determined individuals. Less

Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth: Adventures in Comparative Religion

Corinne G. Dempsey

Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth celebrates the merits of carefully contextualized comparison as an illuminating approach to the study of religion. Drawing from ... More

Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth celebrates the merits of carefully contextualized comparison as an illuminating approach to the study of religion. Drawing from ethnographical work in several sites over a period of sixteen years, Dempsey juxtaposes Hindu and Christian, Indian and Euroamerican religious expressions that take shape as folklore figures, democratizing theologies, sanctified terrain, and extraordinary human abilities. She uncovers how these expressions, all of which lend sacred meaning and power to the material realities of religious participants, push against systems promoting otherworldly abstractions. The book’s comparison of these religious modes deepens insights into the qualities and interpretations of the earthbound sacred, sheds light on contours otherwise obscured, and suggests possibilities for bridging human contingencies across religious and cultural divides. The method and structure of this book represent a two-tiered rebuttal to two similarly constructed critiques. A complaint commonly lodged against comparison is that it imposes abstractions that erase culturally embedded realities. Critics of religion view religious systems as likewise imposing spiritualized conceptions that neglect earthly realities. As both sets of critics see it, scholarly comparison and religion, dictated from above, easily lend themselves to imperialistic structures of oppression. Unsurprisingly, as frameworks that name and claim varieties of power, both are often guilty as charged. Yet by comparing contextually across religious and cultural divides, this book demonstrates how practitioners variously engage with religious forms and experiences that meet earthly concerns and dismantle oppressive abstractions in the process. Less

By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion

Terryl L. Givens

This book assesses the tempestuous impact and reception history of the Book of Mormon, produced by Joseph Smith in 1830, and the primary scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of ... More

This book assesses the tempestuous impact and reception history of the Book of Mormon, produced by Joseph Smith in 1830, and the primary scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints. Givens describes the book's role as a divine testament of the Last Days and as a sacred sign of Joseph Smith's status as a modern‐day prophet. He reviews its claims to be a history of the pre‐Columbian peopling of the Western Hemisphere, first by a small Old World group in the era of Babel, and later by Israelites from Jerusalem in the age of Jeremiah. Givens explores how the Book of Mormon has been defined as a cultural product of early nineteenth‐century America, and also investigates its status as a new American Bible or Fifth Gospel, displacing, supporting, or—in some views—perverting the canonical Word of God. Givens also probes the Book's shifting relationship to Mormon doctrine and its changing reputation among theologians and scholars. Finally, in exploring the Book of Mormon's “revelatory appeal,” Givens finds the key to the Book's role as the engine behind what may become the next world religion. The Book of Mormon describes and enacts a model of revelation that Givens calls “dialogic.” Ultimately, Givens argues, the Book of Mormon has exerted its influence primarily by virtue of what it points to, represents, and claims to be, rather than by virtue of any particular content. Less

The Catholic Church and the Jewish People: Recent Reflections from Rome

Norbert J. Hofmann, Joseph Sievers

Philip A Cunningham (ed.)

This book makes available in fifteen chapters English essays that mark the fortieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian ... More

This book makes available in fifteen chapters English essays that mark the fortieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate). Surveying Vatican dialogues and documents, the chapters explore theological questions posed by the Shoah and the Catholic recognition of the Jewish people's covenantal life with God. Featuring essays by Vatican officials, leading rabbis, diplomats, and Catholic and Jewish scholars, the book discusses the nature of Christian–Jewish relations and the need to remember their conflicted and often tragic history, aspects of a Christian theology of Judaism, the Catholic–Jewish dialogue since the Shoah, and the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. The book includes an essay by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, and documents on the rapprochement between the Church and the Jewish people.Less

Catholic High Schools: Facing the New Realities

James L. Heft

Catholic high schools in the United States have been undergoing three major changes: the shift to primarily lay leadership and teachers; the transition to a more consumerist and ... More

Catholic high schools in the United States have been undergoing three major changes: the shift to primarily lay leadership and teachers; the transition to a more consumerist and pluralist culture; and the increasing diversity of students attending Catholic high schools. This book argues that to navigate these changes successfully, leaders of Catholic education need to inform lay teachers more thoroughly, conduct a more profound social analysis of the culture, and address the real needs of students. After presenting the history of Catholic schools in the United States and describing the major legal decisions that have influenced their evolution, the book describes the distinctive and compelling mission of a Catholic high school. Two chapters are devoted to leadership, and other chapters to teachers, students, alternative models of high schools, financing, and the key role of parents, who today may be described as “post-deferential” to traditional authorities, including bishops and priests. Less