American Religion

Too often, all oppressed people in America are lumped together under the moniker people of color, as if each group's experience under the yoke of systemic racism has the same repercussions. But the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) hold a unique claim: ADOS, after all, is the only group whose ancestors were forcibly brought to America, enslaved, built much of the wealth of the country, yet continue to be excluded from the same social, political, and economic rights of other Americans. To that end, Rev. Dr. Kevin W. Cosby lays out the first theology of the ADOS movement.

Each year across the United States, there are mysterious and unexplainable firsthand encounters by average people. These encounters beg the question, do monsters exist? From east to west across the US, professionals are actively researching these encounters to prove once and for all that these creatures do exist. American Cryptids takes you on a journey across the country, visiting each state along the way.

An Indian American immigrant who grew up in white Southern culture, Prasanta Verma names and sheds light on the realities of ethnic loneliness. She unpacks the exhausting effects of cultural isolation, the dynamics of marginalization, and the weight of being other. In the midst of disconnection and erasure, she points to the longing to belong, the need to share our stories, and the hope of finding safe friendships and community. Our places of exile can become places where we find belonging—to ourselves, to others, and to God.

In The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn, Stuart M. Blumin and Glenn C. Altschuler tell the story of 19th-century Brooklyn's domination by upper- and middle-class Protestants with roots in Puritan New England. This lively history describes the unraveling of the control they wielded as more ethnically diverse groups moved into the "City of Churches" during the 20th century.

Considered for many decades to be the most influential priest in America, Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh played what many consider pivotal roles in higher education, the Catholic Church, and national and international affairs. American Priest examines his life and his many and varied engagements - from the university he led for 35 years to his associations with the Vatican and the White House - and evaluates the extent and importance of his legacy.

This magisterial work (winner of the National Jewish Book Award and other honors) chronicles the 350-year history of the Jewish religion in America. Tracing American Judaism from its origins in the colonial era through the present day, Jonathan Sarna explores the ways in which Judaism adapted in this new context. How did American culture - predominantly Protestant and overwhelmingly capitalist - affect Jewish religion and culture?

Chamanismo para principiantes: Explore los rituales chamánicos, las creencias y las prácticas de los chamanes nativos americanos, nórdicos, celtas y siberianos.

They believed they would live forever. So begins Mira Ptacin's haunting account of the women of Camp Etna - an otherworldly community in the woods of Maine that has, since 1876, played host to generations of Spiritualists and mediums dedicated to preserving the links between the mortal realm and the afterlife. Beginning her narrative in 1848 with two sisters who claimed they could speak to the dead, Ptacin reveals how Spiritualism first blossomed into a national practice during the Civil War, yet continues - even thrives - to this very day.

The 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an African American teenager in Florida, and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, brought public attention to controversial "Stand Your Ground" laws. The verdict, as much as the killing, sent shock waves through the African American community, recalling a history of similar deaths, and the long struggle for justice. On the Sunday morning following the verdict, black preachers around the country addressed the question, "Where is the justice of God? What are we to hope for?"

Imagine awakening to a new reality of who you are, revealing a hidden past that has shaped your family's history for centuries. Fact, not fiction, this experience has been shared by thousands of descendants of Sephardic Jews who fled Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries, seeking safe haven from the ruthless Spanish Inquisition. Many had already converted to Catholicism, but learned that conversion was not enough to save their lives. They established new communities throughout the world, living as Catholics on the outside, but guarding a precious Jewish heritage in secret.

Robert E. Lee was many things - accomplished soldier, military engineer, college president, family man, agent of reconciliation, polarizing figure. He was also a person of deep Christian conviction. In this biography of the famous Civil War general, R. David Cox shows how Lee's Christian faith shaped his crucial role in some of the most pivotal events in American history.

Shane Dash, a beautiful and brilliant psychoanalyst, is on the brink of self-destruction. With the death of her mother and the discovery that her own child has healing powers beyond her comprehension, Shane questions her entire existence. While dealing with her grief and confusion, Shane follows in her mother's footsteps and is magically guided within. Kai, her mother's mentor, takes her beyond her mind into a world of the mystical.

In this heart-wrenching yet stubbornly hopeful narrative, Evangelical Lutheran pastor Kenneth Wheeler exposes white supremacy as America's greatest threat. Transcending the boundaries of memoir, scholarship, theology, and sharp political critique, Pastor Wheeler takes readers on his own seven-decade-long journey that lays bare the terror of being Black in America. From his childhood in Jackson, Mississippi under the trauma of Jim Crow segregation to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Wheeler steadily holds a mirror up to a nation drowning in a rising tide of white supremacy.

American history has profoundly shaped, and been shaped by, Christianity. This engaging introduction provides a brisk and lively yet deeply researched survey of these intertwined forces from the colonial period to the present. Elesha Coffman tells the story of Christianity in the United States by focusing on thirteen key events over four centuries of history. The turning points are as varied as the movements they track, including a naval battle, a revival, a schism, a court case, an outpouring of the Spirit, an act of terrorism, the election of a bishop, and the election of a president.

Among the pressing concerns of Americans in the first century of nationhood were day-to-day survival, political harmony, exploration of the continent, foreign policy, and - fixed deeply in the collective consciousness - hell and eternal damnation. The fear of fire and brimstone and the worm that never dies exerted a profound and lasting influence on Americans' ideas about themselves, their neighbors, and the rest of the world.

Great Catholics were crucial to America's founding, but they were downgraded by most historians who never spoke their names. End of problem - thanks to an independent historian, Dan LeRoy, who gets right to the point.

Muslim men are stereotyped as either oversexed Casanovas willing to die for 72 virgins in heaven or controlling, big-bearded husbands ready to rampage at the hint of dishonor. The truth is, there are millions of Muslim men trying to figure out the complicated terrain of love, sex, and relationships just like any other American man. In Salaam, Love, Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi provide a space for American Muslim men to speak openly about their romantic lives, offering frank, funny, and insightful glimpses into their hearts—and bedrooms.

Step into the locker rooms and living rooms of NFL players and their families. See how a close relationship with God guides football’s biggest stars. In a behind-the-scenes, off-the-field glimpse into one of America’s most beloved sports, Men of Sunday reveals how Sunday’s greatest rely on God to face issues such as drug abuse, family crises, injuries, and temptations resulting from fame and fortune. Compiled from dozens of interviews, Men of Sunday marks the intersection of two Sunday traditions: faith and football.

Exactly what has public education been trying to accomplish? Before the 1830s and Horace Mann, no schools in the US were state-supported or state-controlled. They were local, parent-teacher enterprises, supported without taxes, and taking care of all children. They were remarkably high in standard and were Christian. From Mann to the present, the state has used education to socialize the child. Public education became the means of creating a social order of the educators' design. Such men saw themselves and the school in messianic terms.

The New American Standard Bible is one of the most accurate translations of the Scriptures. In the New Testament gospels you will discover the virgin birth, ministry, crucifixion, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ written from four different yet perfectly harmonized vantage points. Historical and life-altering Biblical truths are proclaimed from the birth of the early church to the spread of the Gospel through Paul, Peter, John, and others in the epistles.