Faith in America [Three Volumes]

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Faith in America [Three Volumes] Changes, Challenges, New Directions

Charles H. Lippy, ed.

ISBN: 0-275-98605-5

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-98605-6

DOI:

880 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 9/30/2006

List Price: $300.00 (UK Sterling Price: £206.95)

Discount Price: $150.00 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.

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Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

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Scholars of religion explore the major trends in religion in the US over the past half century at a level accessible to general readers and nonspecialist scholars and students. The first volume looks primarily at transformations in organized religious life in mainstream and other varieties of Christianity, in religions that are minorities in the US, and among various population groups. The second explores debate and controversy that have risen, such as the political impact of the religious right, abortion, and civil religion. The third considers the retreat into personal spirituality from such perspectives as fiction, film the Internet, and religion in a world of terror. The volumes are paged and indexed separately.
—Reference & Research Book News February 2007
Few encyclopedias (extended studies) could be more needed in America today than this indispesable three-volume set. It should have been made available before the election November 7, 2006, but it will serve as an explanation, or justification, for the results of that election, for spiritual America is still a land without a solid ground to stand on....These three volumes look behind and into every (burning) bush to try to determine why things are what they are....An informed electorate is supposed to be a responsible electorate. These three volumes should help bring about that desired paradise.
—Journal of American Cultures June 2007
Lippy and his advisory board have demonstrated the wide range of influence religion has in daily life by gathering 36 essays from distinguished scholars who discuss pertinent influences on religion in American life....Do the contributors address all the major forces (e.g., the Internet, sports) changing the shape of religion in American life? Maybe not, but they certainly make readers aware of the enormous role religion plays in our society. Generally, the essays are accessible to all readers and reveal the unfolding drama that is religion in America. Recommended for large general public and academic libraries.
—Library Journal 12/15/2006
This three-volume encyclopedia surveys a broad range of religious beliefs, practices, and influence in contemporary American culture. The 36 essays consider multiple religious traditions and highlight the myriad ways that religion engages in the private lives of individuals--and in public debates, media, and culture. Volume 1 focuses on major contemporary religious traditions in the US and includes a chapter on alternative religions. Volume 2 examines political and cultural issues in which religious beliefs play a role, such as abortion, stem cell research, and gay rights. Volume 3 investigates lived religion and individual spirituality through fiction, film, the Internet, sports, and more. Editor Lippy seeks to highlight the ways in which religious beliefs and practices have changed over the past 40 years, along with the enduring ways that religious attitudes continue to transform American culture....[r]eadable and accessible to a general audience. Highly recommended. Academic and public libraries; all levels.
—Choice 6/1/2007

Description: Over the last 25 years, there has been much talk of the presumed decline in religious participation in America. In addition, from the 1960s on, surveys that mark the influence of religion in American life have shown a mixed response. Many suggest that religion is losing influence in the culture as a whole; others indicate that while organized religion may be experiencing challenges, spirituality is on the upswing. At the same time, however, there have been signs that religious life in the U.S. is extraordinarily healthy. But religion in America has changed, to be sure, in a number of ways. And it has changed us and our culture in return. This timely set looks at the major forces that are changing the shape of religion in American life.

With an influx of immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and other regions, the diversity of religion has grown to include Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and other faiths. Latin American and African American communities have experienced changes in the ways they practice their faith and in turn influence American culture in general. Women have entered the clergy in record numbers, and the push for allowing women and gays to enter the clergy in religions that limit or prohibit their roles is on the increase. In addition, gay couples are leading the same-sex marriage movement, and other social issues such as abortion, stem-cell research, end of life care, etc., are still being debated. Interest over how people actually live out their religion or spirituality has mushroomed in recent decades, thanks in part to the information revolution and popular culture. What folks do when they gather together to worship, and where they come together, has changed dramatically with the advent of the Internet and the role of sports in American life. So much has changed, and faith in America has become more important than ever—as part of our culture, our way of life, and the way we relate to each other and the world around us. The essays found in these pages shed light on our understanding of these transformations and help us comprehend the enormous role of religion in our society and in our world.

Table of Contents:

Volume I
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Growth and Decline in the Mainline
2. Post-Vatican II Catholicism: A New Church for a New Day?
3. Roman Catholicism after the Sex Scandals
4. The Spirit of the Law: Spirituality in American Judaism
5. Fundamentalism and Pentecostalism: The Changing Face of Evangelicalism in America
6. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism: The Impact of World Religions
7. Porous Borders: Mexican Immigration and American Civic Culture
8. The Shifting Role of the Latter-day Saints as the Quintessential American Religion
9. The Continuing Influence of Region on American Religious Life
10. The Shape of Things to Come: Megachurches, Emerging Churches, and Other New Religious Structures
11. In Search of the Promised Land: Post-Civil Rights Trends in African American Religion
12. New and Alternative Religions: Changes, Issues, Trends
Index
About the Editor and Contributors
About the Advisory Board
Volume II
1. Public Ceremonies: Ritualizing Civic, Media, and Social Life
2. American Civil Religion: Myth, Reality, and Challenges
3. A Touristic Spirit in Places of Religion
4. Religion and Politics: The Impact of the Religious Right
5. From Southern Strategy to National Strategy: How the Christian Right Is Transforming Church-State Relations
6. Queering the Mainstream, Mainstreaming the Queer: LGBT People and Religion in the U.S.
7. Gender Matters: How Second-Wave Feminism Shaped and Reshaped American Religion
8. A Baby or a Fetus: The Abortion Debate in America
9. Christian Attitudes Toward Reproductive Technologies
10. This Mortal Coil: Mortality, Morality, and Stem Cells
11. Reading Foodways as Faithways in Contemporary America
12. Sacred Bodies: Religion, Illness, and Healing
Index
About the Editor and Contributors
About the Advisory Board
Volume III
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Contemporary Worship: Trends and Patterns in Christian America
2. A Visionary People: Religion and the Visual Arts in America
3. Personal Spirituality
4. Out of the Mouths of Babes: Religion and Spirituality among Children and Teens
5. Living Fiction: American Spirituality and Bestselling Novels
6. The Footprints of Film: After Images of Religion in American Space and Time
7. The Internet and American Religious Life
8. Workplace Spirituality
9. Nature Religion and Environmentalism in North America
10. Religion and the Environment
11. From Muscular Christianity to Divine Madness: Sports nd/as Religion in America
12. From Faith to Fear: Religion in a World of Terror
Index
About the Editor and Contributors
About the Advisory Board

About the Author: Charles H. Lippy is LeRoy A. Martin Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is author or editor of Pluralism Comes of Age: American Religious Culture in the Twentieth Century, Being Religious, American Style: A History of Popular Religiosity in the United States (Greenwood), Christianity Comes to the Americas, 1492-1776, Twentieth-Century Shapers of American Popular Religion (Greenwood), Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, and other titles.

LCC Class: BL2525

PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Religion Catalog 2008.pdf	Praeger Public Library Spring 2008.pdf


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