Religion and Politics in American Quarterly

Religion and Politics in American Life

Kelly Baker

The most recent issue of American Quarterly, edited by Marie Griffith and Melani McAlister, delves into an issue quite familiar to the reader of this blog, Religion and American Politics. The essays in this volume provide interesting insight into this often-contentious issue. The articles range from religion and the public schools to assimilation to Hell House. It is definitely worth perusing, and I will post about the articles in particular when I finish grading hundreds of papers. Here’s the table of contents for a preview. (The volume is available online with a subscription to the journal.)

American Quarterly
Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States, 59:3 (September 2007)

Preface Curtis Marez

Introduction: Is the Public Square Still Naked? R. Marie Griffith and Melani McAlister

Engaging State Power “Favoritism Cannot Be Tolerated”: Challenging Protestantism in
America’s Public Schools and Promoting the Neutral State Kevin M. Schultz

Selling American Diversity and Muslim American Identity through Nonprofit Advertising Post-9/11 Evelyn Alsultany

“The ERA Is a Moral Issue”: The Mormon Church, LDS Women, and the Defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment Neil J. Young

Hot Damned America: Evangelicalism and the Climate Change Policy Debate Brian McCammack

Catholics, Democrats, and the GOP in Contemporary America John McGreevy

Politics of the Global Islamism and Its African American Muslim Critics: Black Muslims in the Era of the Arab Cold War Edward E. Curtis IV

“As Americans Against Genocide”: The Crisis in Darfur and Interreligious Political Activism Jodi Eichler-Levine and Rosemary Hicks

From Exodus to Exile: Black Pentecostals, Migrating Pilgrims, and Imagined Internationlism Clarence E. Hardy III

Who Speaks for Indian Americans? Religion, Ethnicity, and Political Formation Prema Kurien

Leaders and Activists Benjamin Mays, Global Ecumenism, and Local Religious Segregation Barbara Dianne Savage

Impossible Assimilations, American Liberalism, and Jewish Difference: Revisiting Jewish Secularism Laura Levitt

An Exception to Exceptionalism: A Reflection on Reinhold Niebuhr’s Vision of “Prophetic” Christianity and the Problem of Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy Michael G. Thompson

Cesar Chavez in American Religious Politics: Remapping the New Spiritual Line Luis León

Ties That Bind and Divisions That Persist: Evangelical Faith and the Political Spectrum D. Michael Lindsay

Media and Performance “Signaling Through the Flames”: Hell House Performance and Structures of Religious Feeling Ann Pellegrini

Critical Faith: Japanese Americans and the Birth of a New Civil Religion Jane Naomi Iwamura

Back to the Future: Religion, Politics, and the Media Diane Winston

Testimonial Politics: The Christian Right’s Faith-Based Approach to Marriage and Imprisonment Tanya Erzen

“It Will Change the World If Everybody Reads This Book”: New Thought Religion in Oprah’s Book Club Trysh Travis