American Religious Democracy
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American Religious Democracy
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Author : Bruce Ledewitz
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Release Date : 2007-03-30
American Religious Democracy written by Bruce Ledewitz and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-03-30 with Religion categories.
The most significant, public religious issue confronting America today is the relationship between Church and State. Secular opinion holds that the rise of religion in the public square is a threat to our democracy that must be resisted. American Religious Democracy argues that this position, although understandable, is misguided. American political life after the 2004 Presidential election is best understood as a religious democracy, though not of a fundamentalist variety. This book explains the decline of secular democracy, describes some of the legal, political and religious implications of this new religious democracy and, finally, invites secular voters to participate in religious democracy. The 2004 election clearly showed that a substantial number of voters in America now vote the way they do for what they consider to be religious reasons and that, as a result of their voting, government policy is changing to reflect their religious commitments. The result has been the creation of a religious democracy. However,taking part in a religious democracy, for Americans especially, requires a new understanding of what religion means in a public and political sense. Ledewitz takes a reasoned, yet lively approach to the subject, promoting a a new understanding of what religious democracy is and how secularists can and should participate. Looking at the Constitution, the current nature of politics and religion, and public attitudes toward capitalism, the environment, technology, women's rights, and international relations, the author is able to construct a clearer picture of the religious and political landscape in America today.
Have A Little Faith
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Author : Benjamin Justice
language : en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date : 2016-11-09
Have A Little Faith written by Benjamin Justice and has been published by University of Chicago Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-11-09 with Education categories.
It isn’t just in recent arguments over the teaching of intelligent design or reciting the pledge of allegiance that religion and education have butted heads: since their beginnings nearly two centuries ago, public schools have been embroiled in heated controversies over religion’s place in the education system of a pluralistic nation. In this book, Benjamin Justice and Colin Macleod take up this rich and significant history of conflict with renewed clarity and astonishing breadth. Moving from the American Revolution to the present—from the common schools of the nineteenth century to the charter schools of the twenty-first—they offer one of the most comprehensive assessments of religion and education in America that has ever been published. From Bible readings and school prayer to teaching evolution and cultivating religious tolerance, Justice and Macleod consider the key issues and colorful characters that have shaped the way American schools have attempted to negotiate religious pluralism in a politically legitimate fashion. While schools and educational policies have not always advanced tolerance and understanding, Justice and Macleod point to the many efforts Americans have made to find a place for religion in public schools that both acknowledges the importance of faith to so many citizens and respects democratic ideals that insist upon a reasonable separation of church and state. Finally, they apply the lessons of history and political philosophy to an analysis of three critical areas of religious controversy in public education today: student-led religious observances in extracurricular activities, the tensions between freedom of expression and the need for inclusive environments, and the shift from democratic control of schools to loosely regulated charter and voucher programs. Altogether Justice and Macleod show how the interpretation of educational history through the lens of contemporary democratic theory offers both a richer understanding of past disputes and new ways of addressing contemporary challenges.
Why Religion Is Good For American Democracy
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Author : Robert Wuthnow
language : en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Release Date : 2021-09-07
Why Religion Is Good For American Democracy written by Robert Wuthnow and has been published by Princeton University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2021-09-07 with Social Science categories.
How the actions and advocacy of diverse religious communities in the United States have supported democracy’s development during the past century Does religion benefit democracy? Robert Wuthnow says yes. In Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy, Wuthnow makes his case by moving beyond the focus on unifying values or narratives about culture wars and elections. Rather, he demonstrates that the beneficial contributions of religion are best understood through the lens of religious diversity. The religious composition of the United States comprises many groups, organizations, and individuals that vigorously, and sometimes aggressively, contend for what they believe to be good and true. Unwelcome as this contention can be, it is rarely extremist, violent, or autocratic. Instead, it brings alternative and innovative perspectives to the table, forcing debates about what it means to be a democracy. Wuthnow shows how American religious diversity works by closely investigating religious advocacy spanning the past century: during the Great Depression, World War II, the civil rights movement, the debates about welfare reform, the recent struggles for immigrant rights and economic equality, and responses to the coronavirus pandemic. The engagement of religious groups in advocacy and counteradvocacy has sharpened arguments about authoritarianism, liberty of conscience, freedom of assembly, human dignity, citizens’ rights, equality, and public health. Wuthnow hones in on key principles of democratic governance and provides a hopeful yet realistic appraisal of what religion can and cannot achieve. At a time when many observers believe American democracy to be in dire need of revitalization, Why Religion Is Good for American Democracy illustrates how religious groups have contributed to this end and how they might continue to do so despite the many challenges faced by the nation.
God S Democracy
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Author : Emilio Gentile
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Release Date : 2008-09-30
God S Democracy written by Emilio Gentile and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-09-30 with Religion categories.
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 Naked Public Square
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Author : Richard John Neuhaus
language : en
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Release Date : 1986
The Naked Public Square written by Richard John Neuhaus and has been published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1986 with Religion categories.
Underlying the many crises in American life, writes Richard John Neuhaus, is a crisis of faith. It is not enough that more people should believe or that those who believe should believe more strongly. Rather, the faith of persons and communities must be more compellingly related to the public arena. "The naked public square"--which results from the exclusion of popular values from the public forum--will almost certainly result in the death of democracy. The great challenge, says Neuhaus, is the reconstruction of a public philosophy that can undergird American life and America's ambiguous place in the world. To be truly democratic and to endure, such a public philosophy must be grounded in values that are based on Judeo-Christian religion. The remedy begins with recognizing that democratic theory and practice, which have in the past often been indifferent or hostile to religion, must now be legitimated in terms compatible with biblical faith. Neuhaus explores the strengths and weaknesses of various sectors of American religion in pursuing this task of critical legitimation. Arguing that America is now engaged in an historic moment of testing, he draws upon Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish thinkers who have in other moments of testing seen that the stakes are very high--for America, for the promise of democratic freedom elsewhere, and possibly for God's purpose in the world. An honest analysis of the situation, says Neuhaus, shatters false polarizations between left and right, liberal and conservative. In a democratic culture, the believer's respect for nonbelievers is not a compromise but a requirement of the believer's faith. Similarly, the democratic rights of those outside the communities of religious faith can be assured only by the inclusion of religiously-grounded values in the common life. The Naked Public Square does not offer yet another partisan program for political of social change. Rather, it offers a deeply disturbing, but finally hopeful, examination of Abraham Lincoln's century-old question--whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
The Democratization Of American Christianity
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Author : Nathan O. Hatch
language : en
Publisher: Yale University Press
Release Date : 1989-01-01
The Democratization Of American Christianity written by Nathan O. Hatch and has been published by Yale University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1989-01-01 with Religion categories.
Looks at changes in the Christian church just after the American Revolution, and explains how the desire for democracy led to the rise of new religious movements
America And The Will Of God
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Author : Carlos A. Mojica
language : en
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Release Date : 2007-08-29
America And The Will Of God written by Carlos A. Mojica and has been published by Xlibris Corporation this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2007-08-29 with Religion categories.
This book examines an important issue facing America today the increasing influence of evangelical Christians in our Federal government and the erosion in the separation between Church and State. The election of George W. Bush secured a representative for the Christian right who was willing to effect government policies to reflect Christian values on issues such as gay marriage, stem-cell research, abortion, and others. More significantly, the importance of securing this group of voters was not lost on any of the presidential candidates in the upcoming 2008 election. From now on, every candidate will have to publicly express their faith and how it influences their lives and decisions. This book explores several questions posed by this shift in the balance between Church and State: Can we derive a moral code independent of God? Would a strong evangelical influence strengthen our government? Are democratic principles compatible with a theocracy? And more fundamental, does God really exist? How do we know?
Imagining Judeo Christian America
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Author : K. Healan Gaston
language : en
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date : 2019-11-15
Imagining Judeo Christian America written by K. Healan Gaston and has been published by University of Chicago Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-11-15 with History categories.
“Judeo-Christian” is a remarkably easy term to look right through. Judaism and Christianity obviously share tenets, texts, and beliefs that have strongly influenced American democracy. In this ambitious book, however, K. Healan Gaston challenges the myth of a monolithic Judeo-Christian America. She demonstrates that the idea is not only a recent and deliberate construct, but also a potentially dangerous one. From the time of its widespread adoption in the 1930s, the ostensible inclusiveness of Judeo-Christian terminology concealed efforts to promote particular conceptions of religion, secularism, and politics. Gaston also shows that this new language, originally rooted in arguments over the nature of democracy that intensified in the early Cold War years, later became a marker in the culture wars that continue today. She argues that the debate on what constituted Judeo-Christian—and American—identity has shaped the country’s religious and political culture much more extensively than previously recognized.
The Democratization Of Religion In America
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Author : Joseph Forcinelli
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 1990
The Democratization Of Religion In America written by Joseph Forcinelli and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1990 with Democracy categories.
The Religion Of Democracy
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Author : Amy Kittelstrom
language : en
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date : 2015-04-21
The Religion Of Democracy written by Amy Kittelstrom and has been published by Penguin this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-04-21 with History categories.
A history of religion’s role in the American liberal tradition through the eyes of seven transformative thinkers Today we associate liberal thought and politics with secularism. When we argue over whether the nation’s founders meant to keep religion out of politics, the godless side is said to be liberal. But the role of religion in American politics has always been far more nuanced and complex than today’s debates would suggest and closer to the heart of American intellectual life than is commonly understood. American democracy was intended by its creators to be more than just a political system, and in The Religion of Democracy, historian Amy Kittelstrom shows how religion and democracy have worked together as universal ideals in American culture—and as guides to moral action and the social practice of treating one another as equals who deserve to be free. The first people in the world to call themselves “liberals” were New England Christians in the early republic, for whom being liberal meant being receptive to a range of beliefs and values. The story begins in the mid-eighteenth century, when the first Boston liberals brought the Enlightenment into Reformation Christianity, tying equality and liberty to the human soul at the same moment these root concepts were being tied to democracy. The nineteenth century saw the development of a robust liberal intellectual culture in America, built on open-minded pursuit of truth and acceptance of human diversity. By the twentieth century, what had begun in Boston as a narrow, patrician democracy transformed into a religion of democracy in which the new liberals of modern America believed that where different viewpoints overlap, common truth is revealed. The core American principles of liberty and equality were never free from religion but full of religion. The Religion of Democracy re-creates the liberal conversation from the eighteenth century to the twentieth by tracing the lived connections among seven thinkers through whom they knew, what they read and wrote, where they went, and how they expressed their opinions—from John Adams to William James to Jane Addams; from Boston to Chicago to Berkeley. Sweeping and ambitious, The Religion of Democracy is a lively narrative of quintessentially American ideas as they were forged, debated, and remade across our history.