Religion and Politics Beyond the Culture Wars - by Darren Dochuk (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Influenced by culture war theories first introduced in the 1990s, much of the recent history of modern American religion and politics is written in a mode that takes for granted the enduring partisan divides that can blind us to the complex and dynamic intersections of faith and politics. The contributors to Religion and Politics Beyond the Culture Wars argue that such narratives do not tell the whole story of religion and politics in the modern age. This collection of essays, authored by leading scholars in American religious and political history, challenges readers to look past familiar clashes over social issues to appreciate the ways in which faith has fueled twentieth-century U.S. politics beyond predictable partisan divides and across a spectrum of debates ranging from environment to labor, immigration to civil rights, domestic legislation to foreign policy. Offering fresh illustrations drawn from a range of innovative primary sources, theories, and methods, these essays emphasize that our rendering of religion and politics in the twentieth century must appreciate the intersectionality of identities, interests, and motivations that transpire and exist outside an unbending dualistic paradigm." --

Book Synopsis

This volume reframes the narrative that has too often dominated the field of historical study of religion and politics: the culture wars.

Influenced by culture war theories first introduced in the 1990s, much of the recent history of modern American religion and politics is written in a mode that takes for granted the enduring partisan divides that can blind us to the complex and dynamic intersections of faith and politics. The contributors to Religion and Politics Beyond the Culture Wars argue that such narratives do not tell the whole story of religion and politics in the modern age.

This collection of essays, authored by leading scholars in American religious and political history, challenges readers to look past familiar clashes over social issues to appreciate the ways in which faith has fueled twentieth-century U.S. politics beyond predictable partisan divides and across a spectrum of debates ranging from environment to labor, immigration to civil rights, domestic legislation to foreign policy. Offering fresh illustrations drawn from a range of innovative primary sources, theories, and methods, these essays emphasize that our rendering of religion and politics in the twentieth century must appreciate the intersectionality of identities, interests, and motivations that transpire and exist outside an unbending dualistic paradigm.

Contributors: Darren Dochuk, Janine Giordano Drake, Joseph Kip Kosek, Josef Sorett, Patrick Q. Mason, Wendy L. Wall, Mark Brilliant, Andrew Preston, Matthew Avery Sutton, Kathleen Sprows Cummings, Benjamin Francis-Fallon, Michelle Nickerson, Keith Makoto Woodhouse, Kate Bowler, and James T. Kloppenberg.

Review Quotes

Ultimately, this work offers a fresh, up-to-date examination of the historical narrative and future direction of studies of religion, culture, and politics while challenging the stale dichotomies of past interpretations. -Choice

Political historians have been taking religion more seriously of late and this volume shows how powerful and important that attention can be in our present moment. --American Academy of Religion

"The essays in this volume present fresh approaches from some of the bestknown scholars in the field. [T]here is no doubt that the authors of the essays in this volume have made a persuasive case that historians, at the very least, can move beyond the culture wars by paying more attention to the complexity of Americans' religiously informed thinking." --Fides et Historia

"This collection of essays about religion and politics in the United States in the modern era attempts to pierce through the binary thinking produced by the culture wars. . . . Throughout the volume, the writers work to transcend partisan divides, highlight key figures who were less famous than Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, and uncover additional tensions in religious and political life by examining places of contingence, irony, and surprise." --The Christian Century

"This book doesn't solve any problems, but it shows that divisions and culture wars are nothing new in a society where religion and politics often combust. The difference today is a more polarized citizenry." --Catholic News Service

"This collection of essays encourages readers to look beyond predictable clashes over social issues and examine the ways in which faith has fueled 20th-century U.S. politics." --Notre Dame Magazine

"The market is full of books arguing the definition of 'who is an evangelical'--questions that this collection refreshingly ignores. For those looking for something beyond that argument and for most historians either connected directly to religion and politics or who see this as a subtheme in their own work, this collection carves out unique space that would be welcome." --David P. King, author of God's Internationalists

About the Author

Darren Dochuk is the Andrew V. Tackes College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He most recently authored Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America and is editor and co-editor of a number of books, including American Evangelicalism: George Marsden and the State of American Religious History (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014).