Synopses & Reviews
Religion and politics are never far from the headlines, but their relationship remains complex and often confusing. Religion and Politics in America offers a lively, accessible, and balanced treatment of religion in American politics. The authors explore the historical, cultural, and legal contexts that underlie religious political engagement while also highlighting the pragmatic and strategic political realities that religious organizations and people face today. Incorporating up-to-date scholarship and analysis of voting behavior through the 2008 elections, the fourth edition assesses the politics of conventional and not-so-conventional American religious movements. Features include contemporary case studies, useful focus-study boxes, and timely discussions of Islam, Latinos, international affairs, and political culture.
Synopsis
Religion and politics are never far from the headlines, but their relationship remains complex and often confusing. In this significantly revised third edition of Religion and Politics in America, the authors offer an accessible and balanced treatment of religion in American politics. They explore the historical, cultural, and legal contexts that underlie religious engagement while also highlighting the pragmatic and strategic political realities that religious organizations and people face. Incorporating the best and most up-to-date scholarship, the authors assess the politics of Roman Catholics; evangelical, mainline, and African American Protestants; Jews; Muslims and other conventional and not-so-conventional American religious movements. The work examines important subjects concerning religion and its relationship to gender, race, and class. The treatment of recent voting behavior provides an in-depth understanding for students of how religion and politics relate in practice. These core topics, along with specific contemporary case studies, useful focus-study boxes, and new emphases on Islam, Latinos, international affairs, and popular culture, further enhance this third edition for courses in political science, religion, and sociology departments.
Synopsis
A new edition of this well regarded text.
Synopsis
A lively and accessible exploration of the historical, cultural, and legal contexts that underlie religious political engagement in the United States
About the Author
Robert Booth Fowler is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. An award-winning teacher, he is the author of numerous books, including
Enduring Liberalism: American Political Thought since the 1960s,
The Dance with Community, and
Wisconsin Votes.
Allen D. Hertzke is Presidential Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of several books on religion and politics, most recently Freeing God’s Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights.
Laura R. Olson is professor of political science at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. She is author, coauthor, or coeditor of nine books, including Religious Interests in Community Conflict and Christian Clergy in American Politics.
Kevin R. den Dulk is associate professor of political science and Honors Faculty Fellow at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He is the coauthor of Pews, Prayers, and Participation and The God Gap?: Religion in the 2008 Election.