Religion and American Culture

Abstract

Religion and American Culture challenges the religion's traditional emphasis on older European, American, male, middle-class, Protestant, denomination, northeastern narratives concerned primarily with churches and theology. Breaking through the field with multicultural tales of Native American, African Americans and other groups that cut across boundaries of gender, class and religion and region, David Hackett's anthology offers an illuminating and comprehensive overview of the most exciting work currently underway in this rapidly changing field. Drawing upon the newest work in the field, Hackett has gathered a chorus of voices that cuts across cultural, ethnic, class and gender boundaries. Incorporating regional religious stories of the South and the West, Native American religious history, working class Christianity, popular Catholicism, and urban Santeria, Hackett explores many of overlooked aspects of the role of religion in American culture and society. The contributors examine such issues as the complex role of women play within religious beliefs and practice. By examing what has been traditionall and historically excluded from the canon of religious studies, Hackett's reader promises to be a landmark work in its field and out of it. Ramon A. Gutierrez, David D. Hall, Albert J. Raboteau, Joel Martin, William B. Gravely, Mary Ryan, Marvin S. Hill, Sandra L. Myers, Leigh Eric Schmidt, Mark Carnes, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Robert