Timothy Beal describes many aspects of religion in contemporary America that are typically ignored in other books on the subject, including religion in popular culture and counter-cultural groups; the growing phenomenon of "hybrid" religious identities, both individual and collective; the expanding numbers of new religious movements, or NRMs, in America; and interesting examples of "outsider religion." He also offers an engaging overview of the history of religion in America, from Native American traditions to the present ...
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Timothy Beal describes many aspects of religion in contemporary America that are typically ignored in other books on the subject, including religion in popular culture and counter-cultural groups; the growing phenomenon of "hybrid" religious identities, both individual and collective; the expanding numbers of new religious movements, or NRMs, in America; and interesting examples of "outsider religion." He also offers an engaging overview of the history of religion in America, from Native American traditions to the present day. Finally, Beal highlights the three major forces shaping the present and future of religion in America.
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Timothy Beal's book, "Religion in America" (2008) takes as its theme a motto on the Great Seal of the United States: "e pluribus unum", "from many, one". His book describes the ways in which the motto was and remains important to an understanding of religion in America. Beal is the Florence Harkness Professor of Religion at Case Western University, Ohio and the author of many books about American religion and about Biblical interpretation. The book is part of Oxford University Press' "Very Short Introductions" series, which has the goal of presenting many important subjects in brief, scholarly treatments for busy people.
The subject of the book, religion in America, has aspects which are both local and personal and extremely broad. In addition, the subject lends itself to a variety of treatments, including historical, sociological, philosophical and more. As Beal recognizes, treatment of the subject in a book of under 100 pages necessarily only skims the surface. Yet, Beal offers a readable, informed account with its own perspective that encourages thought about its subject.
In his brief account, Beal takes a variety of approaches with the aim of explaining the American paradox of unity in diversity. He takes the reader on a tour of the many (over 50) different religious sites and places of worship in the short drive from his home to his university. From this local point of view, Beal shifts to statistics which show the breadth of religious commitments in the United States with its many religious denominations, Christian and non-Christian. He talks as well about "outsider religion" practiced by some individuals with no particular denomination. In its early years, the United States was predominantly but not exclusively Protestant. Beal observes that "religious diversity in America today is both quantitatively and qualitatively greater than anywhere else in the world."
In a brief historical look at American religions, Beal finds three factors that influenced its development: the dispossession of the Indians, the experience of fighting a Revolutionary War which had as one of its themes religious freedom, and the Revivalist movement in American religion which began before independence and has continued. Beal lays particular stress on American evangelism, which he sees as having both positive and negative components in understanding American religions and religious diversity. Beal then describes three current trends in American life and examines their likely continued impact on American religion: increased immigration, the rise of the Internet, and the growth of American consumer culture.
How, for Beal, does America make one out of many? Beal describes the increased polarization of views and strongly held commitments, from all sides, in recent years which often appears to challenge unity in the face of the many. Beal identifies broad approaches he calls "hospitality" and "security", by which he means the need to be receptive and welcoming to those views different from one's own while preserving a proper and legitimate concern for safety. Beal wants to move his readers towards the "hospitality" side of the continuum. He discusses ways in which different religions can learn from each other and work together, closing the book with a consideration of a Zen center in rural Kentucky which as succeeded in becoming part of the surrounding community and which is physically close to the center of an evangelical revival movement of 200 years ago. It is a modestly presented goal for a short book.
The format of the book makes its own limitations. Beal offers excellent sources for more in-depth reading in the book's bibliography and endnotes. This book offers a good, if quick, introductory account of religion in the United States.
