America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity
America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 0691134111

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and adherents of other non-Western religions have become a significant presence in the United States in recent years. Yet many Americans continue to regard the United States as a Christian society. How are we adapting to the new diversity? Are we willing to do the hard work required to achieve genuine religious pluralism? Award-winning author Robert Wuthnow tackles these and other difficult questions surrounding religious diversity. Wuthnow contends that responses to religious diversity are fundamentally deeper than polite discussions about civil liberties and tolerance would suggest. Rather, he writes, religious diversity strikes at the very core of our personal and national theologies. Only by understanding this important dimension of our culture will we be able to move toward a more reflective religious pluralism. -- From publisher's description.

America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity
America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity

Author: Robert Wuthnow

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 1400837243

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and adherents of other non-Western religions have become a significant presence in the United States in recent years. Yet many Americans continue to regard the United States as a Christian society. How are we adapting to the new diversity? Do we casually announce that we "respect" the faiths of non-Christians without understanding much about those faiths? Are we willing to do the hard work required to achieve genuine religious pluralism? Award-winning author Robert Wuthnow tackles these and other difficult questions surrounding religious diversity and does so with his characteristic rigor and style. America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity looks not only at how we have adapted to diversity in the past, but at the ways rank-and-file Americans, clergy, and other community leaders are responding today. Drawing from a new national survey and hundreds of in-depth qualitative interviews, this book is the first systematic effort to assess how well the nation is meeting the current challenges of religious and cultural diversity. The results, Wuthnow argues, are both encouraging and sobering--encouraging because most Americans do recognize the right of diverse groups to worship freely, but sobering because few Americans have bothered to learn much about religions other than their own or to engage in constructive interreligious dialogue. Wuthnow contends that responses to religious diversity are fundamentally deeper than polite discussions about civil liberties and tolerance would suggest. Rather, he writes, religious diversity strikes us at the very core of our personal and national theologies. Only by understanding this important dimension of our culture will we be able to move toward a more reflective approach to religious pluralism.

Out of Many Faiths
Out of Many Faiths

Author: Eboo Patel

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-08-27

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 0691196818

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The former faith adviser to Barack Obama draws on his personal experience as a Muslim in America to examine the importance of religious diversity in the nation's cultural, political, and economic life. He explores how religious language has given the United States some of its most enduring symbols and inspired its most vital civic institutions.

The Critical Analysis of Religious Diversity
The Critical Analysis of Religious Diversity

Author: Lene Kühle

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-06-19

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 900436711X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Drawing on international and thematic case studies, The Critical Analysis of Religious Diversity asks its readers to pay attention to the assumptions and processes by which scholars, religious practitioners and states construct religious diversity. The study has three foci: theoretical and methodological issues; religious diversity in non-Western contexts; and religious diversity in social contexts. Together, these trans-contextual studies are utilised to develop a critical analysis exploring how agency, power and language construct understandings of religious diversity. As a result, the book argues that reflexive scholarship needs to consider that the dynamics of diversification and homogenisation are fundamental to understanding social and religious life, that religious diversity is a Western concept, and that definitions of ‘religious diversity’ are often entangled by and within dynamic empirical realities. Contributors are: Martin Baumann, Peter Beyer, Jørn Borup, Paul Bramadat, Marian Burchardt, Henrik Reintoft Christensen, Andrew Dawson, Mar Griera, Anna Halafoff, William Hoverd, Lene Kühle, Mar Marcos, Stefania Travagnin, and Andreas Tunger-Zanetti.

Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously
Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously

Author: Barbara A. McGraw

Publisher: Baylor University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1932792333

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The clash between the religious right and the secular left undermines any serious debate about the role of religion in American public life. Such strident cultural rhetoric often ignores the positive contributions of America's many religions. By contrast, this volume celebrates America's religious diversity, demonstrating that religious pluralism is actually one of democracy's basic building blocks. Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously expands on Barbara A. McGraw's framework for understanding religious participation in public life--a two-tiered public forum, consisting of the civic public forum and the conscientious public forum. The chapters explore how diverse religious communities and traditions, including "newer" and marginalized religions, can make a meaningful contribution to American society and politics.

Religious Diversity in Asia
Religious Diversity in Asia

Author: Jørn Borup

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-10-01

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 9004415815

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The religious landscape in Asia has long been diverse, with various forms of syncretic traditions and pragmatic practices continuously having been challenged by centrifugal forces of differentiation. This anthology explores representations and managements of religious diversity in Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and diaspora religions originating in these countries, seen through the lenses of history, identity, state, ritual and geography. In addition to presenting empirical cases, the chapters also address theoretical and methodological reflections using Asia as a laboratory for further comparative research of the relevance and use of 'religious diversity'. Contributors are: Donald Baker, Ugo Dessi, Chung Van Hoang, Ayelet Harel-Shalev, Noa Levy, Gideon Elazar, Santosh K. Singh, Yu Tao, Ed Griffith, Satoko Fujiwara, Uwe Skoda, Tudor Silva, Martin Tsang, Marianne Q. Fibiger, Jørn Borup, and Lene Kühle. Religious Diversity in Asia was made possible by a framework grant from the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation allowing the grant holder (Jørn Borup) and two colleagues (Marianne Q. Fibiger and Lene Kühle) to host a workshop at Aarhus University and to co-arrange workshops in Delhi and Nagoya. We would like to thank professors Arshad Alam and Michiaki Okuyama for hosting these latter workshops at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Nanzan University, and we would like to thank Professor Chong-Suh Kim for the invitation for Jørn Borup to visit Seoul National University. We would also like to extend our gratitude to all the scholars who participated in the workshops and to all the authors we subsequently invited to contribute to our endeavor to create this academically relevant volume.

Encountering Religious Pluralism
Encountering Religious Pluralism

Author: Harold Netland

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2001-08-14

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780830815524

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Harold Netland traces the emergence of the pluralistic ethos that challenges Christian faith and mission, interacting heavily with philosopher John Hick and providing a framework for developing a comprehensive evangelical theology of religions.

Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

Author: Christian Smith Dr William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology University of Notre Dame

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2005-01-25

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 0198039972

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

America's Religious History
America's Religious History

Author: Thomas S. Kidd

Publisher: Zondervan Academic

Published: 2019-11-12

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 0310586186

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Religion, race, and American history. America's Religious History is an up-to-date, narrative-based introduction to the unique role of faith in American history. Moving beyond present-day polemics to understand the challenges and nuances of our religious past, leading historian Thomas S. Kidd interweaves religious history and key events from the larger story of American history, including: The Great Awakening The American Revolution Slavery and the Civil War Civil rights and church-state controversy Immigration, religious diversity, and the culture wars Useful for both classroom and personal study, America's Religious History provides a balanced, authoritative assessment of how faith has shaped American life and politics.