Heaven Has a Wall : Religion, Borders, and the Global United States / Elizabeth Shakman Hurd.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hurd, Elizabeth Shakman, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Emigration and immigration--Public opinion.

United States.

United States--Public opinion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (192 p.) : 16 halftones

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2025]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

An urgent exploration of borders as sacred objects in American culture. Our national conversation about the border has taken a religious turn. When televangelists declare, “Heaven has a wall,” activists shout back, “Jesus was a refugee.” For Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, the standoff makes explicit a longstanding truth: borders are religious as well as political objects. In this book, Hurd argues that Americans share a bipartisan border religion, complete with an array of beliefs and practices, including a reverence for national security, a liturgy for immigration, and an eschatological foreign policy. Through an analysis of the many ways the United States creates, enforces, and ignores borders at home and abroad, Hurd offers a bold new perspective on the ties that bind American religion, politics, and public life.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

INTRODUCTION Where People Come to Press Close to the Other Side

CHAPTER 1 Creating The Liturgy of Asylum

INTERLUDE I Border/less

CHAPTER 2 Enforcing National Security

INTERLUDE II Unbordered Land without Law

CHAPTER 3 Suspending Americalsrael

INTERLUDE III Crossing

CHAPTER 4 Refusing Holy Death in the Borderlands

INTERLUDE IV Walking Pilgrimage to Magdalena

CONCLUSION The Ideal Border

Acknowledgments

Sources

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Apr 2025)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-226-84119-7

OCLC:

1520915213