The production of American religious freedom / Finbarr Curtis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Curtis, Finbarr, 1973- author.

Series:

North American religions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Freedom of religion--United States.

Freedom of religion.

Branding (Marketing).

United States.

United States--Church history.

Church history.

Religion and sociology--United States.

Religion and sociology.

Liberty.

Selling.

Branding (Marketing)--United States.

Genre:

Church history.

Physical Description:

x, 209 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Americans love religious freedom. Few agree, however, about what they mean by either "religion" or "freedom." Rather than resolve these debates, Finbarr Curtis argues that there is no such thing as religious freedom. Lacking any consistent content, religious freedom is a shifting and malleable rhetoric employed for a variety of purposes. The book traces shifts in religious freedom among Protestants from the Second Great Awakening, through the Scopes trial, and the populist movements that laid the groundwork for the Tea Party. A chapter on Al-Smith considers how first Catholic presidential nominee of a major party challenged Protestant views about the separation of church and state. Looking at a later period in the twentieth century, the book analyzes Malcolm X's more sweeping rejection of Christian freedom in favor of radical forms of revolutionary change. The final chapters examine how contemporary controversies over intelligent design and the claims of corporations to exercise religion are at the forefront of efforts to shift regulatory power away from the state and toward private institutions like families, churches, and corporations. Curtis concludes that, while Americans often think of freedom as the right to be left alone, the free exercise of religion actually works to produce, challenge distribute, and regulate different forms of social power. Book jacket.

Contents:

You, and you, and you: Charles Grandison Finney and democracy

I'm not myself to-night. I owe money: Louisa May Alcott and salvation

Sentiment rules the world: William Jennings Bryan and populism

The helpless white minority: D.W. Griffith and violence

The fundamental faith of every true American: Al Smith and loyalty

Do you hate me? Malcolm X and the truth

Science in a little box: intelligent design and secularity

The most sacred of all property: corporations and persons

You, and you, and you.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781479882113

1479882119

9781479856763

1479856762

OCLC:

926743392