Imagining Judeo-Christian America : Religion, Secularism, and the Redefinition of Democracy / K. Healan Gaston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gaston, K. Healan, Author.

Series:

Chicago scholarship online.

Chicago scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religious pluralism--United States.

Religious pluralism.

Religion and politics--United States--History--20th century.

Religion and politics.

Christianity and politics--United States--History--20th century.

Christianity and politics.

Democracy--United States--Religious aspects.

Democracy.

United States--Church history--20th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 349 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"Judeo-Christian" is a remarkably easy term to look right through. Judaism and Christianity obviously share tenets, texts, and beliefs that have strongly influenced American democracy. In this ambitious book, however, K. Healan Gaston challenges the myth of a monolithic Judeo-Christian America. She demonstrates that the idea is not only a recent and deliberate construct, but also a potentially dangerous one. From the time of its widespread adoption in the 1930s, the ostensible inclusiveness of Judeo-Christian terminology concealed efforts to promote particular conceptions of religion, secularism, and politics. Gaston also shows that this new language, originally rooted in arguments over the nature of democracy that intensified in the early Cold War years, later became a marker in the culture wars that continue today. She argues that the debate on what constituted Judeo-Christian-and American-identity has shaped the country's religious and political culture much more extensively than previously recognized.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One. The Genesis of America's Judeo- Christian Discourse

1. From Hebraic- Hellenic to Judeo- Christian

2. A Protestant Nation No More

3. Democracy's Tradition

Part Two. Secularism and the Redefinition of Democracy

4. The Flowering of a Discourse

5. From World War to Cold War

6. Fighting Godless Communism

Part Three. From Tri- faith to Multireligious America

7. Secularism Reconsidered

8. Judeo- Christian Visions under Fire

9. Multireligious Possibilities

Conclusion. The Future of Judeo- Christian Discourse

Bibliographic Essay

Notes

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Feb 2020)

ISBN:

9780226663999

022666399X

OCLC:

1121137962