Religion In Public Life

When asked their religious identification, more people answer 'none' in the Pacific Northwest than in any other region of the United States. But this does not mean that the region's religious institutions are without power or that Northwesterners who do attend no place of worship are without spiritual commitments. With no dominant denomination, Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, adherents of Pacific Rim religious traditions, indigenous groups, spiritual environmentalists, and secularists must vie or sometimes must cooperate with each other to address the regions' pressing economic, environmental, and social issues. One cannot understand this complex region without understanding the fluid religious commitments of its inhabitants. And one cannot understand religion in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska without Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest.

A thought-provoking discussion of the public and political expression of America's diverse religious beliefs.

"We are," said Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "a religious people," and his observation is continually borne out in every aspect of American public life. Religious ideals underlay the founding of the colonies and the firming of the new nation; the activities of churches have been closely interwined with politics in the abolition of slavery, the drive for women's suffrage, the prohibition of liquor,and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The recent revival of arguments over the participation of relgious groups in politics points up the continuing controversey about the separation of church and state. In this study, A. James Reichley places religion and politics within a conceptual framework that considers the values in which both are rooted and examines, in light of that framework, the actual impact of religion and religious groups on American public life. He analyzes the underlying causes and issues involved, their contemporary impact, and their continuing evolution. Finally he discusses how the involvement of religious groups in politics can be carried on within the context of the separation of church and state without threat to civil liberties or seculat politicalization of religion.

How far can religion play a part in the public sphere, or should it be only a private matter? Roger Trigg examines this question in the context of today's pluralist societies. Should we celebrate diversity, or are matters of truth at stake? In particular, can we maintain our love of freedom, while cutting it off from religious roots?

In July 2002 chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court had a two-ton monument of the Ten Commandments placed into the rotunda of the Montgomery state judicial building. But this action is only a recent case in the long history of religiously inspired public movements in the American South. From the Civil War to the Scopes Trial to the Moral Majority, white Southern evangelicals have taken ideas they see as drawn from the Christian Scriptures and tried to make them into public law. But blacks, women, subregions, and other religious groups too vie for power within and outside this Southern Religious Establishment. Religion and Public Life in the South gives voice to both the establishment and its dissenters and shows why more than any other region of the country, religion drives public debate in the South.

"This book puts forward the most sophisticated and subtle treatment available on the relation between religion and politics and church (synagogue, mosque, temple) and state. Thiemann has taken our impoverished discourse on these matters to new heights and higher ground." --Cornel West. [from back cover.]

"We are," said Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "a religious people," and his observation is continually borne out in every aspect of American public life. Religious ideals underlay the founding of the colonies and the firming of the new nation; the activities of churches have been closely interwined with politics in the abolition of slavery, the drive for women's suffrage, the prohibition of liquor,and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The recent revival of arguments over the participation of relgious groups in politics points up the continuing controversey about the separation of church and state. In this study, A. James Reichley places religion and politics within a conceptual framework that considers the values in which both are rooted and examines, in light of that framework, the actual impact of religion and religious groups on American public life. He analyzes the underlying causes and issues involved, their contemporary impact, and their continuing evolution. Finally he discusses how the involvement of religious groups in politics can be carried on within the context of the separation of church and state without threat to civil liberties or seculat politicalization of religion.

Religious crosses the spheres of both the private life and the public institution. In a liberal democracy, public and private interests and goals prove to be inseparable. Clarke Cochran’s interdisciplinary study brings political theory and the sociology of religion together in a fresh interpretation of liberal culture. First published in 1990, this analysis begins with a reassessment of the nature of the "public" and the "private" in relation to the political. The controversy over religion and politics is examined in light of such contested issues of political life as sexuality, abortion, and the changing nature of the family. Clarifying a number of debates central to contemporary society, this timely reissue will be of particular value to students with an interest in the relationship between religious, society, and politics.