America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (ebook)

Argumento de America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity (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.

"As Robert Wuthnow amply documents, the United States is (on the whole) an open and welcoming country, ready to extend the full benefits of citizenship to strangers who could expect second-class status in much of the rest of the world."--Gary Rosen, New York Times Book Review

"With . . . America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity, Wuthnow zeros in on one of the most significant issues facing the country today."--Heather Grennan Gary,Publishers Weekly

"This book is one of Wuthnow's best. He lends his fine-grained analysis to a topic that is at the heart of the experiment called American democracy: how people manage the idea that religion should be about the one true faith with their desire to welcome faiths other than their own."--Alan Wolfe, Boston College

"This is a wonderful book. I know of no other works that interrogate the contradictions between the historical sense many Americans hold that America is a "Christian nation" and the current realities and challenges of religious diversity and pluralism. It is a very thorough, penetrating examination of a topic that requires immediate attention."--Lynn Davidman, Brown University

"Wuthnow has conducted careful research, including thousands of interviews, to find out how ordinary American Christians deal in their day-to-day lives with this new religious diversity: how they think about non-Christians; what sort of encounters they have with them, from workplace chatter to interfaith services and even intermarriage; and how they and their pastors deal with such theologically troubling issues as whether non-Christians can be saved or whether Christians should make active efforts to convert them."--Charlotte Allen,Washington Post

"His book marks a major contribution to the study of American religion, both for its lucid arguments, its broad canvassing of the relevant literature, and its research methodology."--Patrick J. Hayes, Catholic Library World

"The great virtue of America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity lies in its careful depiction of the state of American Christianity today. Wuthnow's narrative is endlessly subtle and informative."--Clifford Orwin, The American Interest

"Another commendable study from prolific sociologist Robert Wuthnow, this comprehensive assessment of US religious self-understanding demonstrates how religious diversity is challenging the privileged notion of the US as a 'Christian' nation. . . . Since Americans believe in the right of groups to worship freely but are not motivated to learn about or interact with diverse believers, Wuthnow advocates a proactive 'reflective pluralism' for creating a more hospitable national ethos."--Choice

"Wuthnow's book is a clear exposition of the state of belief and practice with regards to views on religious diversity in America, and an impassioned call for increasing religious tolerance."--Albert Wu, Religious Studies Review

Winner of the 2007 Mirra Komarovsky Best Book Award, Eastern Sociological Society
Finalist for the 2006 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Analytical-Descriptive Studies, American Academy of Religion
Finalist for the 2006 Book Award in Christianity and Culture, Christianity Today

"A wide-ranging and insightful study into how Americans are responding to dramatic increases in religious and cultural diversity."--Mark E. Button, Perspectives on Politics

"This is a supple, nuanced and thoughtful book, among Wuthnow's best."--John A. Coleman, America0List of Tables ix
Preface xi
Introduction Confronting Diversity 1
Chapter 1: A Special People in a Diverse World 8
First Encounters 10
Toward a New Nation 14
From Missions to Comparative Religion 19
The Tripartite Settlement 30
Beyond Christian America? 34
Chapter 2: The New Diversity 37
American Hindus 38
American Buddhists 47
American Muslims 56
Living among Christians 63
Pluralism or Coexistence? 73
Chapter 3: The Signi .cance of Religious Diversity 75
A Threat to Democracy? 78
Fairness and Decency 84
Challenges to American Values 88
Religion as Moral Order 95
Chapter 4: Embracing Diversity: Shopping in the Spiritual Marketplace 106
Trev Granger's Story 108
Becoming a Spiritual Shopper 110
The Shopping Mentality 119
Toward a New Consciousness? 126
Chapter 5: "Many Mansions": Accepting Diversity 130
Sandra Michaelson: Beauty in Every Religion 133
Coming to Terms with Diversity 135
How to Be an Inclusive Christian 143
Envisioning an Inclusive Society 153
Chapter 6: "One Way" : Resisting Diversity 159
Trisha Mobley: "It Is Written" 160
The Road to Resistance 163
Maintaining an Exclusivist Worldview 173
The Social Implications of Christian Exclusivism 183
Chapter 7: The Public's Beliefs and Practices 188
Beliefs about Religious Truth 190
Views of America 198
The Impact of Non-Western Religions 201
Social and Cultural Factors 208
Interreligious Contact and Attitudes 212
Interreligious Programs 220
Conclusions 228
Chapter 8: How Congregations Manage Diversity 230
What Churches Are Doing 233
The Role of Theology 237
Strategies of Avoidance 244
Strategies of Engagement 247
The Imprint of Pluralism 253
Beyond Insularity? 255
Chapter 9: Negotiating Religiously Mixed Marriages 259
Falling in Love 260
Negotiating with Religious Authorities 264
The Parsing of Practices 270
Disaggregating Religious Identities 276
The Normalization of Diversity 278
From Religion to Culture 281
Chapter 10: How Pluralistic Should We Be? 286
Reflective Pluralism 287
The Case for Cooperation 292
An Effort to Promote Understanding 295
Multiple Models 299
Why Interreligious Efforts Fail 301
How Interreligious Efforts Succeed 303
What Else Needs to Be Done 305
Extrapolating to Other Kinds of Diversity 306
The Challenges Ahead 308
Notes 315
Selected Bibliography 351
Index 371