Book Description

The only multicultural survey of established and "new" American religions, this exhaustive three-volume encyclopedia explores the fascinating interactions between religion and ethnicity, gender, regionalism, and popular culture. Religion and American Cultures offers a unique and engrossing journey across our country's religious landscape, past and present. A new spirit of religious diversity and multiculturalism stands alongside traditional institutions in this exhaustive three-volume set. The first volume explores America's multicultural communities and their religious practices--not only Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism, but also Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Spirituality in Latino, African American, Native American, and Asian American communities is covered as well. The second volume focuses on cultural aspects of religions, with topics including film, Generation X, public sacred spaces, sexuality, new religious expressions, and much more. Organized alphabetically, longer general interest anchor essays in the first two volumes are followed by several shorter, more specialized supplementary essays. The third volume is devoted to complementary primary source documents. Written by more than 120 of America's most prestigious religious scholars, these insightful and intriguing entries address contemporary spiritual practice and culture with a historical perspective. - More than 120 essays covering virtually every religion in America - An expert panel of editorial board members and contributors on every major religion in the United States - Richly illustrated images depicting a wide range of religious figures and activities, as well as significant religious sites in the United States - An entire volume of primary source documents illustrating the religious diversity in American culture, including Cecil B. DeMille's essay "The Screen as Religious Teacher" as well as more conventional materials on Christian Science, the New Age, and Buddhism