American culture is evolving rapidly as a result of shifts in its religious landscape. American civil religion is robust enough to make room for new perspectives, as religious pluralism is foundational for democracy. Moreover, as Amy Black and Douglas L. Koopman argue, American religion and politics are indivisible. In this study, they interrogate three visions of American identity: Christian nationalism, strict secularism, and civil religion. Whereas the growth of Christian nationalism an...

Learn to think deeply about the relationship between church and state in a way that goes beyond mere policy debates and current campaigns.Few topics can grab headlines and stir passions quite like politics, especially when the church is involved. Considering the attention that many Christian parachurch groups, churches, and individual believers give to politics--and of the varying and sometimes divergent political ideals and aims among them*--Five Views on the Chur...

American Grace is a major achievement, a groundbreaking examination of religion in America.Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades the nation’s religious landscape has been reshaped.America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious observance plummeted. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, a conservative reaction produced...

“Quite possibly the most illuminating text for this election year” (The New York Times Book Review).*Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion*Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, spells out the profound political and cultural consequences of a new reality—that America is no longer a majority white Christian nation.For most of our nation’s history, White Christian America (WCA) se...

Why do so many conservative Christians continue to support Donald Trump despite his many overt moral failings? Why do many Americans advocate so vehemently for xenophobic policies, such as a border wall with Mexico? Why do many Americans seem so unwilling to acknowledge the injustices that ethnic and racial minorities experience in the United States? Why do a sizeable proportion of Americans continue to oppose women's equality in the workplace and in the home? To answer these questions,

**2024 Midwest Book Award Winner in Religion & PhilosophyPower. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity.**Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities. In this book, he shares his journey and reveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church.Sharing stories from pastors,...

Mary Eberstadt, “one of the most acute and creative social observers of our time,” (Francis Fukuyama) shines a much-needed spotlight on a disturbing trend in American society: discrimination against traditional religious belief and believers, who are being aggressively pushed out of public life by the concerted efforts of militant secularists.In It’s Dangerous to Believe, Mary Eberstadt documents how people of faith—especially Christians who adhere to traditional religious beliefs—...

Discover how to responsibly defend religious freedom for all without compromising your personal beliefs.Religious freedom is a bitterly contested issue that spills over into political, public, and online spheres. It's an issue that's becoming ever more heated, and neither of the global political polarities is interested in protecting it. While the political left is openly hostile toward traditional religion, the political right seeks to weaponize it.How can...

A new group of Americans is challenging the reign of the Religious RightToday, nearly one in five Americans are nonbelievers - a rapidly growing group at a time when traditional Christian churches are dwindling in numbers - and they are flexing their muscles like never before. Yet we still see almost none of them openly serving in elected office, while Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and many others continue to loudly proclaim the myth of America as a Christian...

With What's So Great About America, Dinesh D'Souza is not asking a question, but making a statement. The former White House policy analyst and bestselling author argues that in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, American ideals and patriotism should not be things we shy away from. Instead he offers the grounds for a solid, well-considered pride in the Western pillars of "science, democracy and capitalism," while deconstructing arguments from both the political Left and p...

Why the crisis of Christianity has become a crisis for democracyWhat happens to American democracy if Christianity is no longer able, or no longer willing, to perform the functions on which our constitutional order depends? In this provocative book, the award-winning journalist Jonathan Rauch—a lifelong atheist—reckons candidly with both the shortcomings of secularism and the corrosion of Christianity.Thin Christianity, as Rauch calls the mainline church, h...