America and the challenges of religious diversity /

America and the challenges of religious diversity /

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Wuthnow, Robert, author.
Imprint:Princeton, N.J. ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2005.
Description:1 online resource (xvii, 391 pages)
Language:English
Subject:
Christianity and other religions -- United States.
Cultural pluralism -- United States.
Religious pluralism -- United States.
Christianity.
Cultural pluralism.
Interfaith relations.
Religion.
Religious pluralism.
United States -- Religion.
United States.
Electronic books.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11103783
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781400837243
1400837243
9780691134116
0691134111
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-370) and index.
Print version record.
Summary: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. --Publisher.
Other form:Print version: Wuthnow, Robert. America and the challenges of religious diversity. Princeton, N.J. ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2007 9780691134116
Table of Contents:
  • List of Tables
  • Preface
  • Introduction Confronting Diversity
  • Chapter 1. A Special People in a Diverse World
  • First Encounters
  • Toward a New Nation
  • From Missions to Comparative Religion
  • The Tripartite Settlement
  • Beyond Christian America?
  • Chapter 2. The New Diversity
  • American Hindus
  • American Buddhists
  • American Muslims
  • Living among Christians
  • Pluralism or Coexistence?
  • Chapter 3. The Signi .cance of Religious Diversity
  • A Threat to Democracy?
  • Fairness and Decency
  • Challenges to American Values
  • Religion as Moral Order
  • Chapter 4. Embracing Diversity: Shopping in the Spiritual Marketplace
  • Trev Granger's Story
  • Becoming a Spiritual Shopper
  • The Shopping Mentality
  • Toward a New Consciousness?
  • Chapter 5. "Many Mansions": Accepting Diversity
  • Sandra Michaelson: Beauty in Every Religion
  • Coming to Terms with Diversity
  • How to Be an Inclusive Christian
  • Envisioning an Inclusive Society
  • Chapter 6. "One Way" : Resisting Diversity
  • Trisha Mobley: "It Is Written"
  • The Road to Resistance
  • Maintaining an Exclusivist Worldview
  • The Social Implications of Christian Exclusivism
  • Chapter 7. The Public's Beliefs and Practices
  • Beliefs about Religious Truth
  • Views of America
  • The Impact of Non-Western Religions
  • Social and Cultural Factors
  • Interreligious Contact and Attitudes
  • Interreligious Programs
  • Conclusions
  • Chapter 8. How Congregations Manage Diversity
  • What Churches Are Doing
  • The Role of Theology
  • Strategies of Avoidance
  • Strategies of Engagement
  • The Imprint of Pluralism
  • Beyond Insularity?
  • Chapter 9. Negotiating Religiously Mixed Marriages
  • Falling in Love
  • Negotiating with Religious Authorities
  • The Parsing of Practices
  • Disaggregating Religious Identities
  • The Normalization of Diversity
  • From Religion to Culture
  • Chapter 10. How Pluralistic Should We Be?
  • Reflective Pluralism
  • The Case for Cooperation
  • An Effort to Promote Understanding
  • Multiple Models
  • Why Interreligious Efforts Fail
  • How Interreligious Efforts Succeed
  • What Else Needs to Be Done
  • Extrapolating to Other Kinds of Diversity
  • The Challenges Ahead
  • Notes
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index

Similar Items