Religion and Immigration

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Experiences in the United States

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, John L. Esposito

• Publisher: AltaMira Press
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9780585455334
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

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.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Becoming American—Religion, Identity, and Institution Building in the American Mosaic
• 1 The Changing Contours of American Religion
• 2 American Catholics: Neither out Far nor in Deep
• 3 Crossing the Borders: Evangelicalism and Migration
• 4 Colonization versus Immigration in the Integration and Identification of Hispanics in the United States
• 5 Some Praise Jesus, and Some Don’t: Thoughts on the Complex Nature of African American Religious Identity and Those Who Interpret It
• 6 Immigration and Religion in America: The Experience of Judaism
• 7 American Jews in the New Millennium
• 8 “No Matter How Poor and Small the Building”: Health Care Institutions and the Jewish Immigrant Community
• 9 Islam in America: The Mosaic
• 10 Constructing the American Muslim Community
• 11 How Muslims Use Islamic Paradigms to Define America
• 12 Exploring the Religious Preferences of Recent Immigrants to the United States: Evidence from the New Immigrant Survey Pilot
• Bibliography
• About the Contributors