Religious Freedom

The Contested History of an American Ideal

Bibliographic Data

ID23398498
AuthorsTisa Wenger (corresponding author), Tisa Joy Wenger
Year2017
Pages298
Publication date2017-10-02
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueReligious Freedom (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of North Carolina Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5149/northcarolina/9781469634623.001.0001
OpenAlexW4237494707
Open LibraryOL26463492M
ISBN9781469634623
LanguageEN
Citations received66

Religious freedom is so often presented as a timeless American ideal and an inalienable right, appearing fully formed at the founding of the United States. That is simply not so, Tisa Wenger contends in this sweeping and brilliantly argued book. Instead, American ideas about religious freedom were continually reinvented through a vibrant national discourse--Wenger calls it “religious freedom talk”--that cannot possibly be separated from the evolving politics of race and empire. More often than not, Wenger demonstrates, religious freedom talk worked to privilege the dominant white Christian population. At the same time, a diverse array of minority groups at home and colonized people abroad invoked and reinterpreted this ideal to defend themselves and their ways of life. In so doing they posed sharp challenges to the racial and religious exclusions of American life. People of almost every religious stripe have argued, debated, negotiated, and brought into being an ideal called American religious freedom, subtly transforming their own identities and traditions in the process. In a post-9/11 world, Wenger reflects, public attention to religious freedom and its implications is as consequential as it has ever been.

Freedom of Religion · Human rights · Ideal (ethics) · Political science · Politics · Population · Privilege (computing) · Religious freedom · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Gender Studies · Law · Religion and Society Interactions · 20th century · 86.81 human rights · Diplomatic relations · foreign relations · History · Philippines · race relations · Religious aspects · united states