Product Description

"The United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world," leading religious scholar Diana Eck writes in this eye-opening guide to the religious realities of America today. The Immigration Act of 1965 eliminated the quotas linking immigration to national origins. Since then, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jams, Zoroastrians, and new varieties of Jews and Catholics have arrived from every part of the globe, radically altering the religious landscape of the United States. Members of the world's religions live not just on the other side of the world but in our neighborhoods; Hindu children go to school with Jewish children; Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs work side-by-side with Protestants and Catholics.

This new religious diversity is now a Main Street phenomenon, yet many Americans remain unaware of the profound change taking place at every level of our society, from local school boards to Congress, and in small-town Nebraska as well as New York City. Islamic centers and mosques, Hindu and Buddhist temples, and meditation centers can be found in virtually every major American metropolitan area. There are Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in Salt Lake City, Utah; Toledo, Ohio; and Jackson, Mississippi. Buddhism has become an American religion, as communities widely separated in Asia are now neighbors in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago. Eck discovers Muslims worshiping in a U-Haul dealership in Pawtucket, Rhode Island; a gymnasium in Oklahoma City; and a former mattress showroom in Northridge, California. Hindu temples are housed in a warehouse in Queens, a former YMCA in New Jersey, and a former Methodist church in Minneapolis.

How Americans of all faiths and beliefs can engage with one another to shape a positive pluralism is one of the essential questions -- perhaps the most important facing American society. While race has been the dominant American social issue in the past century, religious diversity in our civil and neighborly lives is emerging, mostly unseen, as the great challenge of the twenty-first century. Diana Eck brilliantly analyzes these developments in the richest and most readable investigation of American society since Robert Bellah's classic, The Habits of the Heart. What Eck gives us in A New Religious America is a portrait of the diversity of religion in modern America, complete with engaging characters, fascinating stories, the tragedy of misunderstanding and hatred, and the hope of new friendships, offering a road map to guide us all in the richly diverse America of the twenty-first century.

An eye-opening Account of the changing Landscape of America

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Interesting... could have been better        Rating:

The positives of this book is its reminder of how we have evolved as a nation. Yes, for the most part we have serious Judeo Christian roots, but lets not forget that many of the founding fathers were more deists than anything. Historians have written since the early years of Christians, Jews, native American belief systems. What is lacking in the book is a serious discussion on the negatives of some of the newer belief systems, and the lack any appreciation of freedom for anyone other than themselves. Freedom of religion in our constitutional documents, has freedom in them for a reason.

Great Read        Rating:

One of the first books about religion that I truly enjoy reading. Eck has a lot of good experience and insight to share.

Helpful introduction to American religious pluralism        Rating:

Written by the founder of The Pluralism Project at Harvard University, this book is a fine survey of America's religious pluralism, especially in the aftermath of immigration reform in 1965. American Muslims, American Hindus, and American Buddhists are the author's subjects. While A New Religious America is "slanted" in focusing a spotlight on white Christian intolerance and ignoring the intolerance of non-Christians, non-whites, and recent immigrants, overall it's a good read as an introduction to American religious diversity.

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