Political Religion and Religious Politics

<p>Profound demographic and cultural changes in American society over the last half century have unsettled conventional understandings of the relationship between religious and political identity. The Protestant mainline continues to shrink in numbers as well as in cultural and political influence. The growing population of American Muslims seek both acceptance and a firmer footing within the nation's cultural and political imagination. Debates over contraception same-sex relationships and prosperity preaching continue to roil the waters of American cultural politics. Perhaps most remarkably the fastest-rising religious demographic in most public opinion surveys is none giving rise to a new demographic that Gutterman and Murphy name Religious Independents. Even the evangelical movement which powerfully re-entered American politics during the 1970s and 1980s and retains a strong foothold in the Republican Party has undergone generational turnover and no longer represents a monolithic political bloc.</p> <p></p> <p>Placing the current moment into historical perspective and reflecting on the possible future of religion politics and cultural conflict in the United States Gutterman and Murphy explore the cultural and political dynamics of evolving notions of national and religious identity. They argue that questions of religion are questions of identity -- personal social and political identity -- and that they function in many of the same ways as race sex gender and ethnicity in the construction of personal meaning the fostering of solidarity with others and the conflict they can occasion in the political arena. </p>