Religion and Immigration: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Experiences in the United States / Edition 1

by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, John L. Esposito, David O'Brien professor emeritus, College of the Holy Cross; distinguished visiting profe, Chester Gillis

Overview

Since its inception, the United States has defined itself as a nation of immigrants and a land of religious freedom. But following September 11, 2001 American openness to immigrants and openness to other beliefs have come into question. In a timely manner, Religion and Immigration provides comparative perspectives on Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews entering the American scene. Will Muslims seek and receive inclusion in ways similar to Catholics and Jews generations before? How will new immigrant populations influence and be influenced by current religious communities? How do overlapping identities of home country, language, class, and ethnicity affect immigrants' sense of their religion? How do the faithful retain their values in a new country of individualism and pluralism? How do religious institutions help immigrants with their physical needs as they are entering a new country? The contributors to Religion and Immigration approach these questions from the perspectives of theology, history, sociology, international studies, political science, and religious studies. A concluding chapter provides results from a pioneering study of immigrants and their religious affiliation. Leading scholars Haddad, Smith, and Esposito have created a valuable text for classes in history, religion or the social sciences or for anyone interested in questions of American religion and immigration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759103528
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	02/25/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.86(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad is professor of history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She has taught Middle East History and Islamic Studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Hartford Seminary, and Colgate University. She is a past president of the Middle East Studies Association. Dr. Haddad's research interest has focused on twentieth century Islamic thought and Muslims in the West. Her numerous publications include Contemporary Islam and the Challenge of History; Muslim Communities in North America; The Islamic Revival; The Muslims of America; Women, Religion and Social Change; Muslims on the Americanization Path?; Muslims in the West: from Sojourners to Citizens; and Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible. Jane I. Smith is professor of Islamic studies, and co-director of the Macdonald Center for Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. She has worked extensively on Muslim communities in the United States, Christian theology in relation to Islam, historical relations between Christians and Muslims, and the role and status of women in Islam. Professor Smith is currently the co-editor of The Muslim World, editor of the "Islam" section in the new Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions, and area editor of Women in Islamic Cultures. She has frequently traveled to various regions of the Muslim world and speaks to academic and community groups about Islam and its relationship to the West. Among Professor Smith's most recent publications are Islam in America, Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible, and "Islam and Christendom" in The Oxford History of Islam. She is co-director of the Henry Luce Forum in Abrahamic Religions, co-sponsored with the Greenberg Center of the University of Hartford. John L. Esposito is University Professor and director of th

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Changing Contours of American Religion Chapter 3 American Catholics: Neither Out Far nor In Deep Chapter 4 Crossing the Borders: Evangelicalism and Immigration Chapter 5 Colonization and Immigration in the Process of Latino Identification Chapter 6 Some Praise Jesus and Some Don't: Thoughts on the Complex Nature of African American Religious Identity and Those Who Interpret It. Chapter 7 Immigration and Religion in America: The Experience of Judaism Chapter 8 American Jews in the New Millennium Chapter 9 "No Matter How Poor and Small the Building": Health Care Issues and the Jewish Immigrant Community Chapter 10 Islam in America: The Mosaic Chapter 11 Constructing the American Muslim Community Chapter 12 How Muslims Use Islamic Paradigms to Define America Chapter 13 Exploring the Religious Preference of Recent Immigrants to the United States: Evidence from the New Immigration Survey Pilot

Editorial Reviews

this book is a welcome addition...This book makes a significant contribution to the literature on religion and immigration and I highly recommend it to scholars and students in the social scientific study of religion.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion - Fenggang Yang

The book's contents...inspire debate...attest to the changing spiritual terrain in America. The essays as a whole demonstrate a certain truth: that organized religion, in all its diversity, does not seek God nearly as much as it seeks like-thinking men and women and, in so doing, establishes its varied communities.

April 2004 Stuart E. Kneen Historical Review

The book will be accessible to the general reader interested in American religious life, scholars, or students. An editors' introduction gives a good integrative overview of emerging issues in the text.

Missiology: An International Review - Margaret Orr Thomas

The book's contents...inspire debate...attest to the changing spiritual terrain in America. The essays as a whole demonstrate a certain truth: that organized religion, in all its diversity, does not seek God nearly as much as it seeks like-thinking men and women and, in so doing, establishes its varied communities.

Stuart E. Kneen Historical Review

The book's contents...inspire debate...attest to the changing spiritual terrain in America. The essays as a whole demonstrate a certain truth: that organized religion, in all its diversity, does not seek God nearly as much as it seeks like-thinking men and women and, in so doing, establishes its varied communities.

American Historical Review, April 2004 - Stuart E. Knee