Religious Literacy Resource Guide: Religious Diversity in America
Resources for teaching religion in the schools.
Textual Resources: Historical Developments
How to Be a Perfect Stranger by ISBN: 9781594735936Publication Date: 2015-03-05We North Americans live in a remarkably diverse society, and it's increasingly common to be invited to a wedding, funeral or other religious service of a friend, relative or coworker whose faith is different from our own. These can be awkward situations ... What will happen? What do I do? What do I wear? What do I say? What should I avoid doing, wearing, saying? Is it okay to use a video camera? How long will it last? What are their basic beliefs? Will there be a reception? Will there be food? Should I bring a gift? When is it okay to leave? These are just a few of the basic questions answered in How to Be a Perfect Stranger. This easy-to-read guidebook, with an "Everything You Need to Know Before You Go" checklist, helps the well-meaning guest to feel comfortable, participate to the fullest extent possible and avoid violating anyone's religious principles--while enriching their own spiritual understanding. For people of all faiths, all backgrounds.
Religions of the United States in Practice by ISBN: 0691009988Publication Date: 2001-12-02Religions of the United States in Practice is a rich anthology of primary sources with accompanying essays that examines religious behavior in America. From praying in an early American synagogue to performing Mormon healing rituals to debating cremation, Volume 1 explores faith through action from Colonial times through the nineteenth century. The documents and essays consider the religious practices of average people--praying, singing, healing, teaching, imagining, and persuading. Some documents are formal liturgies while other texts describe more spontaneous religious actions. Because religious practices also take place in the imagination, dreams, visions, and fictional accounts are also included. Accompanying each primary document is an essay that sets the religious practice in its historical and theological context--making this volume ideal for classroom use and accessible to any reader. The introductory essays explain the various meanings of religious practices as lived out in churches and synagogues, in parlors and fields, beside rivers, on lecture platforms, and in the streets. Religions of the United States in Practice offers a sampling of religious perspectives in order to approximate the living texture of popular religious thought and practice in the United States. The history of religion in America is more than the story of institutions and famous people. This anthology presents a more nuanced story composed of the everyday actions and thoughts of lay men and women.
Lived Religion in America by ISBN: 0691016739Publication Date: 1997-11-16At once historically and theoretically informed, these essays invite the reader to think of religion dynamically, reconsidering American religious history in terms of practices that are linked to specific social contexts. The point of departure is the concept of "lived religion." Discussing such topics as gift exchange, cremation, hymn-singing, and women's spirituality, a group of leading sociologists and historians of religion explore the many facets of how people carry out their religious beliefs on a daily basis.
A New Religious America by ISBN: 0060621583Publication Date: 2001-06-05"The United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world," leading religious scholar Diana Eck writes in this eye-opening guide to the religious realities of America today. The Immigration Act of 1965 eliminated the quotas linking immigration to national origins. Since then, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jams, Zoroastrians, and new varieties of Jews and Catholics have arrived from every part of the globe, radically altering the religious landscape of the United States. Members of the world's religions live not just on the other side of the world but in our neighborhoods; Hindu children go to school with Jewish children; Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs work side-by-side with Protestants and Catholics. This new religious diversity is now a Main Street phenomenon, yet many Americans remain unaware of the profound change taking place at every level of our society, from local school boards to Congress, and in small-town Nebraska as well as New York City. In A New Religious America, Eck gives us a portrait of the diversity of religion in modern America, complete with engaging characters, fascinating stories, the tragedy of misunderstanding and hatred, and the hope of new friendships, offering a road map to guide us all in the richly diverse America of the twenty-first century.
America by ISBN: 9781133050025Publication Date: 2012-02-29Since its first publication in 1981, AMERICA: RELIGIONS AND RELIGION has become the standard introduction to the study of American religious traditions. Written by one of the foremost scholars in the field of American religions, this textbook has introduced thousands of students to the rich religious diversity that has always been a hallmark of the American religious experience. Beginning with native American religious traditions and following the course of America's religious history up to the present day, this text gives students the benefit of the author's extensive, influential scholarship in a clear manner that has proven to be readily accessible for today's undergraduates. This long-awaited new edition explores a variety recent events and developments, including increasing religious pluralism, recent religious change among Native Americans, the development of Islam in America, Jewish renewal and "post-ethnic" Judaism, the "emergent church" movement among liberal evangelicals, the expanded role of women in Catholic communities, and the growth of "new spirituality."
The Protestant Crusade,1800-1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism by ISBN: 0812960076Publication Date: 1976-01-01The full account of the development of anti-Catholic, anti-foreign feeling in the United States, from the early settlements to the 1850's, when the nativists threatened to sweep a No-Popery president into the White House. Professor Billington's classic book offers a new explanation of that most virulent period of bigotry. An impressively documented study which gives a startling picture of certain perversions of democracy that may arise even out of zeal for the democratic faith.
Black Gods of the Metropolis by ISBN: 0812210018Publication Date: 1970-12-15Stemming from his anthropological field work among black religious groups in Philadelphia in the early 1940s, Arthur Huff Fauset believed it was possible to determine the likely direction that mainstream black religious leadership would take in the future, a direction that later indeed manifested itself in the civil rights movement. The American black church, according to Fauset and other contemporary researchers, provided the one place where blacks could experiment without hindrance in activities such as business, politics, social reform, and social expression. With detailed primary accounts of these early spiritual movements and their beliefs and practices, Black Gods of the Metropolis reveals the fascinating origins of such significant modern African American religious groups as the Nation of Islam as well as the role of lesser known and even forgotten churches in the history of the black community. In her new foreword, historian Barbara Dianne Savage discusses the relationship between black intellectuals and black religion, in particular the relationship between black social scientists and black religious practices during Fauset's time. She then explores the complexities of that relationship and its impact on the intellectual and political history of African American religion in general.
Sworn of the Altar of God by ISBN: 0802801560Publication Date: 1996-01-03This acclaimed biography explores the religious life of Thomas Jefferson and the contribution his strident commitment to religious liberty made to the formation of the nation. Renowned historian Edwin Gaustad chronicles Jefferson's intellectual growth, paying particular attention both to Jefferson's private struggle to come to grips with his own faith and to his public role as champion of religious liberty. This volume is must reading for anyone interested in the religious life of one of America's most significant figures.
Protestant--Catholic--Jew by ISBN: 9780226327341Publication Date: 1983-10-15Will Herberg's Protestant-Catholic-Jew spoke precisely to the mid-century condition and speaks in still applicable ways to the American condition. Herberg has digested all the relevant historical, sociological and other analytical studies and has made these findings the basis of a new and creative approach to the American scene. It throws as much light on American society as a whole as it does on the peculiarly religious aspects of American life. Mr. Herberg illumines many facets of religious life in this country. Perhaps the most telling is his thesis that America is not so much a melting pot as three fairly separate melting pots.
The Madonna of 115th Street by ISBN: 0300042647Publication Date: 1988-03-23In an evocation of Italian Harlem and the men and women who lived there, Robert Orsi examines how the annual "festa" of the Madonna of 115th Street both influenced and reflected the lives of the celebrants. His work offers a new perspective on lived religion; the place of religion in the everyday lives of men, women and children; the experiences of immigration and community formation; and American Catholicism.
Slave Religion by ISBN: 0195174127Publication Date: 2004-10-07Twenty-five years after its original publication, Slave Religion remains a classic in the study of African American history and religion. In a new chapter in this anniversary edition, author Albert J. Raboteau reflects upon the origins of the book, the reactions to it over the past twenty-fiveyears, and how he would write it differently today. Using a variety of first and second-hand sources-- some objective, some personal, all riveting-- Raboteau analyzes the transformation of the African religions into evangelical Christianity. He presents the narratives of the slaves themselves, aswell as missionary reports, travel accounts, folklore, black autobiographies, and the journals of white observers to describe the day-to-day religious life in the slave communities. Slave Religion is a must-read for anyone wanting a full picture of this "invisible institution."
Protestant Missionaries, Asian Immigrants, and Ideologies of Race in America, 1850-1924 by ISBN: 0415955831Publication Date: 2006-12-15This book examines how in defending Asian rights and their own version of Christian idealism against scientific racism, missionaries developed a complex theology of race that prefigured modern ideologies of multiculturalism and reached its final, belated culmination in the liberal Protestant support of the civil rights movements in the 1960s.
Textual Resources: Contemporary Realities
Retelling U. S. Religious History by ISBN: 0520205707Publication Date: 1997-01-05This collection marks a turning point in the study of the history of American religions. In challenging the dominant paradigm, Thomas A. Tweed and his coauthors propose nothing less than a reshaping of the way that American religious history is understood, studied, and taught. The range of these essays is extraordinary. They analyze sexual pleasure, colonization, gender, and interreligious exchange. The narrators position themselves in a number of geographical sites, including the Canadian border, the American West, and the Deep South. And they discuss a wide range of groups, from Pueblo Indians and Russian Orthodox to Japanese Buddhists and Southern Baptists.
The World's Religions by ISBN: 0062508113Publication Date: 1991-09-13Updated and re-packaged edition of the all time classic bestseller with more than two million copies sold, from the internationally celebrated authority on religion, Huston Smith. With a new preface and fresh package, this completely revised and updated version of The Religions of Man explores the essential elements and teachings of the world's predominant faiths, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and the native traditions of the Americas, Australia, Africa, and Oceania. Smith emphasises the inner -- rather than institutional -- dimensions of these religions and gives special attention to Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and the teachings of Jesus. He convincingly conveys the unique appeal and gifts of each of the traditions and reveals their hold on the human heart and imagination.
Religious Literacy by ISBN: 9780060846701Publication Date: 2007-03-13The United States is one of the most religious places on earth, but it is also a nation of shocking religious illiteracy. Only 10 percent of American teenagers can name all five major world religions and 15 percent cannot name any. Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that the Bible holds the answers to all or most of life's basic questions, yet only half of American adults can name even one of the four gospels and most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible. Despite this lack of basic knowledge, politicians and pundits continue to root public policy arguments in religious rhetoric whose meanings are missed—or misinterpreted—by the vast majority of Americans. "We have a major civic problem on our hands," says religion scholar Stephen Prothero. He makes the provocative case that to remedy this problem, we should return to teaching religion in the public schools. Alongside "reading, writing, and arithmetic," religion ought to become the "Fourth R" of American education. Many believe that America's descent into religious illiteracy was the doing of activist judges and secularists hell-bent on banishing religion from the public square. Prothero reveals that this is a profound misunderstanding. "In one of the great ironies of American religious history," Prothero writes, "it was the nation's most fervent people of faith who steered us down the road to religious illiteracy. Just how that happened is one of the stories this book has to tell." Prothero avoids the trap of religious relativism by addressing both the core tenets of the world's major religions and the real differences among them. Complete with a dictionary of the key beliefs, characters, and stories of Christianity, Islam, and other religions, Religious Literacy reveals what every American needs to know in order to confront the domestic and foreign challenges facing this country today.
The World's Wisdom by ISBN: 0060663421Publication Date: 1995-07-20A world Bible for our time from Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and primal religion sources! In this perfect companion to Huston Smith's bestselling The World's Wisdom, Philip Novak distills the most powerful and elegant expressions of the wisdom of humankind. Authentic, poetic translations of key texts are coupled with insightful introductions and "grace notes."
Handbook of Denominations in the United States by ISBN: 9781426700484Publication Date: 2010-10-01A helpful resource for clergy, laity, journalists, and researchers, this authoritative guidebook to U.S. religions is grouped in family categories of Abrahamic religions, arranged chronologically: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The information for each group within these families has been provided by the religious organizations themselves and focuses on the denominations' doctrines, statistics, and histories.
Religious Pluralism in America by ISBN: 0300098138Publication Date: 2003-04-10Religious toleration is enshrined as an ideal in the Constitution, but religious diversity has had a complicated history in the United States. Although Americans have taken pride in the rich array of religious faiths that help define their nation, for two centuries they have been grappling with the question of how they can coexist.
Religion in American Life by ISBN: 9780195158243Publication Date: 2003-02-13Accessible and wide-ranging, Religion in American Life illuminates the rich spiritual heritage central to nearly every event in American history. Jon Butler begins by describing the state of religious affairs in both the Old and New Worlds on the eve of colonization. He traces the progress ofreligion in the colonies through the time of the American Revolution, covering all the religious groups in the colonies: Protestants, Jews, Catholics, as well as the unique religious experiences of Native Americans and African Americans. Grant Wacker continues the story with a fascinating look at the ever-shifting religious landscape of 19th-century America. He focuses on the rapid growth of evangelical Protestants-Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and others-and their competition for dominance over religions such as Catholicismand Judaism, which continued to increase with large immigrant arrivals from Ireland, Eastern Europe, and other countries. The 20th century saw massive cultural changes. Randall Balmer discusses the effects industrialization, modernization, and secularization had on new and established religions. He examines Protestants, Hindus, Jews, New Age believers, Mormons, Buddhists, Roman Catholics, and many more, providing aclear look into the kaleidoscope of religious belief in modern-day America.- America by ISBN: 9781133050025Publication Date: 2012-02-29Since its first publication in 1981, AMERICA: RELIGIONS AND RELIGION has become the standard introduction to the study of American religious traditions. Written by one of the foremost scholars in the field of American religions, this textbook has introduced thousands of students to the rich religious diversity that has always been a hallmark of the American religious experience. Beginning with native American religious traditions and following the course of America's religious history up to the present day, this text gives students the benefit of the author's extensive, influential scholarship in a clear manner that has proven to be readily accessible for today's undergraduates. This long-awaited new edition explores a variety recent events and developments, including increasing religious pluralism, recent religious change among Native Americans, the development of Islam in America, Jewish renewal and "post-ethnic" Judaism, the "emergent church" movement among liberal evangelicals, the expanded role of women in Catholic communities, and the growth of "new spirituality."
A Religious History of the American People by ISBN: 0300100124Publication Date: 2004-07-11This classic work, winner of the 1973 National Book Award in Philosophy and Religion and Christian Century’s choice as the Religious Book of the Decade (1979), is now issued with a new chapter by noted religious historian David Hall, who carries the story of American religious history forward to the present day. Praise for the earlier edition: "An unusual and praiseworthy book. . . . It takes a modern, almost anthropological view of history, in which worship is a part of a web of culture along with play, love, dress, and language.”--B.A. Weisberger, Washington Post Book World "The most detailed, most polished of the works in its tradition.”--Martin E. Marty, New York Times Book Review "An intellectual delight that one does not so much read as savor.”--America "The definitive one-volume study by the leading authority.”--Christianity Today "No one writing or thinking hereafter about America’s past will be able to ignore Ahlstrom’s magisterial account of the religious element.”--American Historical Review
Documentary Resources
- Brother Born Again. Directed by Julia Pimsleur. Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ: New Day Films, 2000. DVD.
On a quest for understanding, Julia Pimsleur, a bisexual Jewish New Yorker travels to a remote Alaskan island where her born again Christian brother lives with his spiritual family.
- The Calling. Directed by Yoni Brook et. al. PBS, 2011. DVD.
What does it take to truly commit one's life to serving God? Seven Muslims, Catholics, Evangelical Christians and Jews go on a life-changing journey to become professional clergy.
- Divided We Fall: Americans In the Aftermath. Directed by Sharat Raju. Venice, CA: New Moon Productions, 2008. DVD.
The vicious killing of a turbaned Sikh in the wake of 9/11 prompts college student Valarie Kaur to try to make sense of a divided country. Interweaving authoritative analysis with Kaur's odyssey, this thought-provoking documentary follows her from America's heartland to rural India in her attempt to understand who counts as "American" in times of crisis.
- Fremont, U.S.A. Directed by Rachel Antell and Elinor Pierce. Cambridge: Pluralism Project, 2008. DVD.
Fremont, California is a city transformed by new immigration, with vibrant communities of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Buddhists from several nations. Through civic engagement and interfaith action, strangers have become neighbors. Yet Fremont has also faced real challenges, especially after 9/11. When Alia Ansara, a Muslim woman, is murdered, some wonder if it was a hate crime: How will the wider community respond?
- Lord Save Us From Your Followers: Why Is The Gospel of Love Dividing America? Directed by Dan Merchant and Jim Manning. Virgil Films, 2010. DVD.
Dan Merchant takes to the streets to ask average folks about religious faith and why it seems to be such a divisive force in America's so-called "culture wars". The thought-provoking conversation includes input from activists on both sides of the ideological spectrum.
- So Help Me God. Directed by Mark Meyers and Simon Cole. New York: Alive Mind, 2009. DVD.
Though he has it "all" -- a successful career, great car and terrific wife -- Simon Cole lacks something significant: a meaningful connection with God. To discover his own spirituality, he sets off across America to learn about diverse religions. This personal documentary features memorable encounters with Mormons, Muslims, Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses.
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