Abstract
After reviewing the history of the interplay between religion and culture in the U.S., this article explores important facets of contemporary American society that color the experience and meaning of religious faith. Among these are excessive individualism, a heightened awareness of the need for personal integrity, and the desire for personal religious experience. While religion is often treated as a “classroom pariah” at universities, the author argues that there are numerous possibilities for a more full integration of religion into university life and overall American culture.
Highlights
After reviewing the history of the interplay between religion and culture in the U.S, this article explores important facets of contemporary American society that color the experience and meaning of religious faith
For anyone who thinks that a personal religious commitment inevitably distorts one's capacity to be "objective" about any subject, and perhaps even more so since our subject includes religion, still another reason exists for me personally as a Roman Catholic priest to think twice before taking up this subject with any hope of shedding light on it
My thesis may be stated as follows: There is both good news and bad news when we look at religion and U.S culture
Summary
After reviewing the history of the interplay between religion and culture in the U.S, this article explores important facets of contemporary American society that color the experience and meaning of religious faith. The second major movement, the Enlightenment, spanned both the 18th and 19th centuries, and liberated reason from the control of faith, established the scientific method of knowing as more reliable and objective than religious belief, and stressed the autonomy of the individual Combined, these two movements made religion voluntary, a personal or private matter of the individual person, and something separated from daily life—or at least surely from public life. Despite the tendency of the media and others to polarize the positions of people with regard to religion, it can be said with some confidence that if there is not deep polarization, there is extensive religious pluralism in the United States today
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