Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America

by Karen I. Leonard, Alex Stepick, Manuel A. Vasquez, Jennifer Holdaway

Overview

Recent immigration is changing American religion. No longer only a Protestant, Christian, or even Judeo-Christian nation, the United States is increasingly home to religious traditions from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The history, spirit, and institutions of Protestantism often shape the beliefs and practices of new immigrants and their societies of faith. But immigrants are also creating their own unique religious communities within existing denominations or developing hybrid identities that combine strands of several faiths or traditions. These changes call for new thinking among both scholars of religion and scholars of migration. Immigrant Faiths responds to these changes with fresh thinking from new and established scholars from a variety of disciplines. Covering groups from across the U.S. and a range of religious traditions, Immigrant Faiths provides a needed overview to this expanding subfield. Sponsored by the Social Science Research Council.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759108165
Publisher:	AltaMira Press
Publication date:	04/15/2005
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	7.04(w) x 9.28(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Karen I. Leonard is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Alex Stepick is professor of anthropology and sociology and the director of the Immigration and Ethnicity Institute, Florida International University in Miami. Manuel A. Vasquez is associate professor of religion, University of Florida. Jennifer Holdaway is program officer for the International Migration Program at the Social Science Research Council.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 2 God is Apparently Not Dead: The Obvious, the Emergent, and the Unknown in Immigration and Religion 3 "Brought Together Upon Our Own Continent": Race, Religion, and Evangelical Nationalism in American Baptist Home Missions 1865-1900 4 Daddy Grace: an Immigrant's Story 5 Ritual Transformations in Okinawan Immigrant Communities 6 Religion and the Maintenance of Ethnicity among Immigrants? A Comparison of Indian Hindus and Korean Protestants 7 Changing Religious Practices among Cambodian Immigrants in Long Beach and Seattle 8 Religion and Transnational Migration in the New Chinatown 9 The Protestant Ethic and the Dis-Spirit of Vodou 10 Structural and Cultural Hybrids: Religious Congregational Life and Public Participation of Mexicans in the New South 11 Historicizing and Materializing the Study of Religion: The Contribution of Migration Studies 12 INDEX 13 ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Editorial Reviews

...a valuable and timely collection of essays, with nuanced case studies and assessments of the flexibilities and complications of immigrant religions; it will be useful in the classroom and the library alike for scholars of religion, migration, and American studies.
— February 2007

H-Amstdy

These studies highlight pliable and pragmatic understandings of religion, point out transnational religious networks, and emphasize religion's role in preserving immigrants' languages and cultural continuity.

June 2010 Religious Studies Review

...a valuable and timely collection of essays, with nuanced case studies and assessments of the flexibilities and complications of immigrant religions; it will be useful in the classroom and the library alike for scholars of religion, migration, and American studies.

H-Amstdy - February 2007