The role that race and religion play in American presidential elections is attracting national attention like never before. The 2008 presidential candidates reached out to an unprecedented number of racial and religious voting constituencies including African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, women, the non-religious, and more. Religion, Race, and the American Presidency focuses on the roles of these racial and religious groups in presidentia...

America's clergy are not just religious leaders. Their influence extends far beyond church doors. Houses of worship stand at the center of American civic life-one of the few spheres in which relatively diverse individuals gather together regularly. And the moral authority granted to pastors means that they are uniquely positioned to play a role in public debates. Based on data gathered through national surveys of clergy across four mainline Protestant (the Disciples of Christ; the Presbyte...

American Evangelicals Today assesses the contemporary social, religious, and political characteristics of evangelical Protestants today, and it does so in light of (1) whether these characteristics are similar to, or different from, the corresponding characteristics of adherents of other major faith traditions in American religious life, and (2) the extent which these particular characteristics among evangelicals may have changed over the past four decades. In addition, it analyzes the ext...

Winner of Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA)'s inaugural PESA Book Awards in 2015, and The University of Hong Kong Research Output Prize for Education 2014-15.Muslims and Islam in U.S. Education explores the complex interface that exists between U.S. school curriculum, teaching practice about religion in public schools, societal and teacher attitudes toward Islam and Muslims, and multiculturalism as a framework for meet...

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, (29 May 1874  14 June 1936) was a poet, novelist, playwright, literary commentator, editor, biographer, journalist, orator and theologian. He was often dubbed as the “prince of paradox” for his light whimsical style that often addressed serious issues such as politics and religion. The latter was as a member and defender of the Christian faith and the former was shaped by a distrust of concentrated wealth and power. He advocated Distributionism and said that every...

This book is not published to tell us that there is sin and woe and misery in this world. We know it all too well. This book is not published to tell us that there is an irreconcilable controversy between darkness and light, sin and righteousness, wrong and right, death and life. In our heart of hearts we know it, and know that we are participators, actors, in the conflict. But to every one of us comes at times a longing to know more of the great controversy. How did the controversy begin?...

An eye-opening condemnation of the economic sins of organized religionThroughout his adult life Upton Sinclair was an unapologetic idealist and a tireless crusader for the rights of the common man. In this powerful and scrupulously researched critique, he argues that organized religion is a gargantuan moneymaking operation in collusion with industry in their shared quest to strike down dissent while bleeding profits from the millions in their thrall.Sinclair...

The Gospel According to Blindboy is a surreal and genre-defying collection of short stories and visual art exploring the myths, complacencies and contradictions at the heart of modern Ireland. Covering themes ranging from love and death to sex and politics, there's a story about a girl from Tipp being kicked out of ISIS, a van powered by Cork people's accents and a man who drags a fridge on his back through Limerick.Whip-smart, provocative and animated by the author's unmi...

Religion in China survived the most radical suppression in human history--a total ban of any religion during and after the Cultural Revolution. All churches, temples, and mosques were closed down, converted for secular uses, or turned to museums for the purpose of atheist education. Over the last three decades, however, religion has survived and thrived even as China remains under Communist rule. Christianity ranks among the fastest-growing religions in the country, and many Buddhist and D...

What About the Controversies? Drawing from the questions he has heard from believers and nonbelievers around the world, R. A. Torrey discusses many Bible controversies, including: (1) Is there an opportunity for salvation after we die? (2) Did Jonah really live in the belly of a whale? (3) Did God command Abraham to kill his son? (4) Did Jesus commend the unjust steward? (5) Does God send us lying and evil spirits? (6) Does the Bible contradict itself? (7) Where did Cain get his wife? (8) ...

Conflicts involving religion have returned to the forefront of international relations. And yet political scientists and policymakers have continued to assume that religion has long been privatized in the West. This secularist assumption ignores the contestation surrounding the category of the "secular" in international politics. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations shows why this thinking is flawed, and provides a powerful alternative.Elizabeth Shakman Hu...

New challenges that emerged in the postwar era have given rise to ongoing debate about the place of religion in public life, in the United States and in other established democracies, and this debate has dramatically reshaped the way scholars, policymakers, and religious leaders think about political theology. Political Theology for a Plural Age examines historic and contemporary understandings of political engagement in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, engaging political theologies not m...