RELIGION AND POLITICS IN AMERICA : FAITH, CULTURE, AND STRATEGIC CHOICES, 6TH EDITION

Religion and politics are never far from the headlines, but their relationship remains complex and often confusing. This book offers an engaging, accessible, and balanced treatment of religion in American politics. It explores the historical, cultural, and legal contexts that motivate religious political engagement and assesses the pragmatic and strategic political realities that religious organizations and people face. Incorporating the best and most current scholarship, the authors examine the evolving politics of Roman Catholics; evangelical and mainline Protestants; African-American and Latino traditions; Jews, Muslims, and other religious minorities; recent immigrants and religious "nones"; and other conventional and not-so-conventional American religious movements.

New to the Sixth Edition

• Covers the 2016 election and assesses the role of religion from Obama to Trump.

• Expands substantially on religion’s relationship to gender and sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class, and features the role of social media in religious mobilization.

• Adds discussion questions at the end of every chapter, to help students gain deeper understanding of the subject.

• Adds a new concluding chapter on the normative issues raised by religious political engagement, to stimulate lively discussions.

Allen D. Hertzke is David Ross Boyd Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. He is author or editor of several books on religion and politics, most recently Religious Freedom in America and Christianity and Freedom, vols. I and II.

Laura R. Olson is Centennial Professor in the Department of Political Science at Clemson University and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Kevin R. den Dulk is the Paul B. Henry Chair in Political Science and Director of the Henry Institute at Calvin College. He is the coauthor of The Disappearing God Gap? Religion in the 2008 Election and Pews, Prayers, and Participation: Religion and Civic Responsibility.

Robert Booth Fowler is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His published books include Enduring Liberalism: American Political Thought since the 1960s, The Dance with Community: The Contemporary Debate in American Political Thought, and Unconventional Partners: Religion and American Liberal Culture.