Table of Contents
Preface
Part One PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
Introduction: Religious America: Diversity and Freedom
1 Studying and Describing Religion
Why Study Religion?
Studying Religion as a Part of the Humanities
Describing Religion
Popular Religion
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
2 Religion in the Life of the United States
Disestablishment and the Constitution
By the Numbers: Data on Religious America
Religion after 9-11
Civil Religion and Beyond
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
3 Conflict and Controversy
Sexual Misconduct by the Clergy
Gays and Lesbians in Communities of Faith
Religion and Violence after 9-11
Religious Expression in a Religiously Plural Culture
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
Part Two CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES—COMMONALITY AND DIVERSITY
4 The Waning Influence of Mainline Protestantism and the New Evangelical Majority
Christian Faith and Practice: Overview
Protestant Christianity
Mainline Protestantism
Denominational Distinctiveness
Evangelicals: The New Center in American Protestantism
Women in Protestantism
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
5 Christianity in American Culture: Diverse Themes
Evangelical Christianity in American Culture: Three Cases
Megachurches
The Religious-Political Right
Separatist and Fundamental Christians
Holiness Christians
Pentecostal Christianity
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
6 Catholic Christianity: Sacramental Community
The Distinctiveness of Catholic Christianity
Additional Distinctive Catholic Beliefs
Catholic Worship: Word and Sacrament
Catholic Lifestyles in the United States
The Church as a Social Institution
The Second Vatican Council: 1962-1965
Who Are American Catholics?
Women in the Catholic Church
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
7 Ethnic Diversity in Christianity: Two Examples
Ethnic Christianity
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the United States
African-American Christianity
The Changing Face of Ethnic Christianity
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
8 American-Born Christianities
Overview
Latter-day Saints
Christian Scientists
Seventh-day Adventists
Jehovah’s Witnesses
An American Innovation
Community and Reassurance
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
Part Three EXPANDING DIVERSITY
9 Living a Jewish Life in the United States
Who Is a Jew?
A Brief Historical Note
Jews and Christians
Principal Beliefs and Practices of Jewish People
One Judaism, Several Expressions
Jewish Women
Holocaust, Memory, and Religiousness
Anti-Semitism
Into the Future
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
10 Muslims in the United States: A Growing Minority
Islam, and Islam in the United States
Muhammad
The Qur’an
Beliefs
The Five Pillars of Islam
Muslims in the United States
Muslim College Students
Muslim Organizations
Muslima: Muslim Women in America
Islam and Black Americans
Into the Future
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
11 Humanism and the Unitarian Universalists
What Is Humanism?
Humanism in the United States
Humanist Organizations
Atheism and Agnosticism
Unitarian Universalists
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
12 Hindus and Buddhists: Asia Comes to America
Hinduism and Hindus in the United States
American Buddhists and Buddhism
The Call of the Orient
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
13 Other Religious and Spiritual Movements
The Religions of the Native Americans
The New Age Movement
The Self-Help Movement and Twelve-Step Programs
Feminist Wicca
The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches
Religion on the Internet
Satanism
Christian Identity
Questions and Activities for Review, Discussion, and Writing
For Further Reading
Relevant World Wide Web Sites
Epilogue: Community and Communication
Index
