Religion and American Cultures: An Encyclopedia of Traditions, Diversity, and Popular Expressions

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, well organized and written
Review: This three-volume set is an excellent treatment of religion in America in various social, cultural, ethnic, and historical settings. The first volume examines the various ethnic cultures and their related religious heritage. It includes African American religions, Asian American religious communities, Buddhism in America, Catholicism in America, Hinduism in America, Islam in American, Judaism in America, Latina/Latino religious communities, Native American religions, new age, new religious traditions, orthodox Christianity, and Protestantism in America. This is not a doctrinal exposition on the beliefs of these groups but a scholastic examination of their formation, traditions, and effect on American culture as well as the American culture's effect on the religious practices.

Volume two examines religion from a different perspective. This volume looks at religious thought about the body, piercing, tattooing, pain, death, mourning rituals, roadside shrines, generational aspects of religion, popular culture, political culture, rituals, sacred space, sacred time, science, sexuality, violence and many others areas.

Volume three examines some of the most important historical documents related to our religious beliefs and culture. These include the charter to Christopher Columbus, the Maryland Toleration Act, the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Paine, John Adams, Sojourner Truth, Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, Emma Lazarus, Andrew Carnegie, W. E. B. Du Bois, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others.

Typical of ABC-CLIO publications this is a series of scholarly articles written at a high school reading level. The Religion and American Culture three volume set is highly recommended for high school libraries, public libraries, and personal libraries as well as for anyone seeking to understand the social and cultural contexts in which the various forms of American religious practice formed and have come to be practiced.