Topic 9: Restructuring American Religion and New Tensions in American Culture 

1. New Faiths and Struggles for the Promise of American Life

Reading: 

·         Marty, chap. 19 Always a Horizon, (1960s, 1970s) Consensus Under Fire

o        Thomas Merton, p. 436

o        Native American Revival

o        Black Rights, 440-447

§         M. L. King

§         Malcolm X

o        Chicano Rights and Cesar Chavez, 447-450

o        Journeys to the East and New Religions, 450-458

§         Zen

§         Krishna

·         Cherry, Part 7 (cont.) Race Issue: (308-313)

o        M. L. King (343-355): Letter from a Birmingham Jail

o        Malcolm X (356-371)

·         WEB:
Shared Prayers (from NY Times series on Race in America)
Pentecostal Church, historical overview (from Race in America)

·         Religion in Post WWII America

·         A Malcolm X Research Site

·         God Fights Back (An episode on Fundamentalism and Politics in the PBS series, The Peoples’ Century

2.. The One and the Many: Multiculturalism, Religion, and the Culture Wars

Reading:

·         Marty, chap. 20: New Paths for Old Pilgrimages

·         Cherry, Part 7 (cont.) National Morals (313-318)

o        Ralph Reed, 372-379

o        Rosemary Reuther, 381-394

·         Moore, Postscript: Civil and Uncivil Religions

·         WEB:

o        Islam in America: From Slavery to Malcolm X

o        The Christian Right

WEB: Note the statistical profile of religious affiliation in the USA at present. Among other things, notice how numerically dominant certain traditional groups continue to be despite the appearance of new religious communities. What does this suggest to you about the religious pluralism in contemporary America?
Largest Religious Groups in the USA

The Ten Largest Religions in the USA

The Ten Largest Religious  Bodies in the USA

But note, too, the presence of many religions in Boston. 

World Religions in Boston