America’s Religious Wars

In America’s Religious Wars, Kathleen Sands offers a historical study of the engagement between religion and public life. Sands identifies the categories of wall and foundation to distinguish the ways that religion and public life interact. The title could be perceived as a hyperbolic play upon the formerly popular language of culture wars, but it actually serves as an apt description of the current state of politics. Sands offers an appropriate analysis of how the United States arrived at this point and offers helpful categories for discussion. The text addresses the challenges in discussing religion in the context of public life. Assumptions exist around terminology and definitions that hinder productive conversation and potential common ground. Sands seeks to “help us travel better in our shared political system” (p. 4). The intersection of religion and public life poses a significant challenge because what is assumed to be a very personal matter, religion, is played out in a public arena. Sands offers that religion has played a dual role: a wall that provides division and boundaries, versus a foundation that serves to unify. Sands effectively explains the important yet confusing role that religion plays.

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Common ground · Context (archaeology) · Conversation · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Foundation (evidence) · Intersection (aeronautics) · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Religious life · Sociology · State (computer science) · Terminology · Engineering · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious Tourism and Spaces