Religion and American Politics From the Colonial Period to the Present

How do religion and politics interact in America? How has that relationship changed over time? Why have American religious and political thought sometimes developed along a parallell course while at other times they have moved in opposite directions? These are among the many important and fascinating questions addressed in this volume. Originally published in 1990 as Religion and American Politics: From The Colonial Period to the 1980s (4921 paperback copies sold), this book offers the first comprehensive survey of the relationship between religion and politics in America. It features a stellar lineup of scholars, including Richard Carwardine, Nathan Hatch, Daniel Walker Howe, George Marsden, Martin Marty, Harry Stout, John Wilson, Robert Wuthnow, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown. Since its publication, the influence of religion on American politics--and, therefore, interest in the topic--has grown exponentially. For this new edition, Mark Noll and new co-editor Luke Harlow offer a completely new introduction, and also commission several new pieces and eliminate several that are now out of date. The resulting book offers a historically-grounded approach to one of the most divisive issues of our time, and serves a wide variety of courses in religious studies, history, and politics.

1. - Religion and Politics in America from the First Settlements to the Civil War
2. - Religion and Ideological Change in the American Revolution
3. - Rhetoric and Reality in the Early Republic: The Case of the Federalist Clergy
4. - Religion, Government, and Power in the New American Nation
5. - The Democratization of Christianity and the Character of American Politics
6. - Religion and Politics in the Antebellum North
7. - Ethnoreligious Political Behavior in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Voting, Values, Culture
8. - Methodists, Politics, and the Coming of the American Civil War
9. - Slavery, Race, and Social Order in the White Christian South, Before and After the Civil War
10. - Protestant Theological Tensions and Political Styles in the Progressive Period
11. - Roman Catholics and American Politics, 1900-1960: Altered Circumstances, Continuing Patterns
12. - Faith Transformed: Religion and American Politics from FDR to George W. Bush
13. - Evangelicalism Becomes Southern, Politics Becomes Evangelical: From FDR to Ronald Reagan
14. - Viewed in Black and White: Conservative Protestantism, Racial Issues, and Oppositional Politics
15. - Roman Catholics and American Politics, 1960-2004
16. - Women, Politics, and Religion
17. - Contemporary Views from Abroad
18. - Canadian Counterpoint
19. - Quid Obscurum: The Changing Terrain of Church-State Relations
20. - Religion, Politics, and the Search for an American Consensus

Mark A. Noll (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He is one of the nation's most distinguished practitioners of American religious history.