This unique documentary history brings together manifestos, Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimonies, speeches, articles, book excerpts, pastoral letters, interviews, song lyrics, memoirs, and poems reflecting the vitality, diversity, and changing nature of religious belief and practice in America since 1945. Covering both the center and the margins of American religious life, these documents reflect the role of religion and theology in the civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements as well as in the conservative responses to these. Issues regarding religion and contemporary American culture are explored in documents about the rise of the evangelical movement and the religious right; the impact of "new" (post-1965) immigrant communities on the religious landscape; the popularity of alternative, New Age, and non-Western beliefs; and the relationship between religion and popular culture. The editors conclude with selections exploring major themes of American religious life at the millennium as well as excerpts that speculate on the future of religion in the United States.

Of late, religion seems to be everywhere, suffusing U.S. politics and popular culture and acting as both a unifying and a divisive force. This collection of manifestos, Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimonies, speeches, articles, book excerpts, pastoral letters, interviews, song lyrics, memoirs, and poems reflects the vitality, diversity, and changing nature of religious belief and practice in American public and private life over the last half century. Encompassing a range of perspectives, this book illustrates the ways in which individuals from all along the religious and political spectrum have engaged religion and viewed it as a crucial aspect of society.

The anthology begins with documents that reflect the close relationship of religion, especially mainline Protestantism, to essential ideas undergirding Cold War America. Covering both the center and the margins of American religious life, this volume devotes extended attention to how issues of politics, race, gender, and sexuality have influenced the religious mainstream. A series of documents reflects the role of religion and theology in the civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements as well as in conservative responses. Issues regarding religion and contemporary American culture are explored in documents about the rise of the evangelical movement and the religious right; the impact of "new" (post-1965) immigrant communities on the religious landscape; the popularity of alternative, New Age, and non-Western beliefs; and the relationship between religion and popular culture.

The editors conclude with selections exploring major themes of American religious life at the millennium, including both conservative and New Age millennialism, as well as excerpts that speculate on the future of religion in the United States.

The documents are grouped by theme into nine chapters and arranged chronologically therein. Each chapter features an extensive introduction providing context for and analysis of the critical issues raised by the primary sources.

Paul Harvey is professor of history at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and the author of Freedom's Coming: Religious Culture and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War Through the Civil Rights Era.Philip Goff is professor of religious studies and director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at Indiana University-Purdue University.

Mark Hulsether:
An excellent teaching resource.

Charles H. Lippy:
Harvey and Goff have done a great service in assembling these sources. Their collection deserves to receive wide use.

Stephen J. Shaw:
This is a welcome and much-needed book... It provides texture and depth to lesser-known elements of the spiritual walk.

Scholars Harvey and Goff bring together a rich collection of primary sources...We find many cultural themes rendered fresh and revealing.