Study Guide for Hulsether, Religion, Culture, Politics in the Twentieth Century United States.

Expanded Table of Contents and Study Guide

Mark Hulsether, Religion, Culture, and Politics in the Twentieth Century United States

This page lists key terms/concepts in the order they appear in the book, expands on chapter/section headings, and suggests discussion questions for the introduction and conclusion. I made it mainly to help students focus on key issues, grasp overarching trains of thought, and review for exams. But it may have some value for others, too.

As I write, an earlier version advantages for nagivation is available at https://volweb.utk.edu/~mhulseth/guide.html. However, UTK is threatening to kick me off this site so results may vary. You can also download a PDF version suitable for printing out.

Introduction (p. 1-19).

Mapping US Religion (2)

Mapping, secularization (its range of meanings), complexity of lived religion, geographic maps, rough-and-ready pie chart (know its numbers), size of secular slice, white Protestant clusters, culture war, limits of culture war model.

Religion in American Studies and Cultural Studies (8)

American Studies, cultural studies, hegemony, pitfalls of hegemony analysis, hegemony as multi-layered and as persuasion, hegemony as framework for studying religion, religion in cultural studies.

Strategies for Dealing with Religious Diversity (13)

Defining religion, Parson Thwackum, Hutchison's stages of pluralism, Lippy's pluralist framework, Protestant-Catholic-Jewish triple establishment (as paradigm), need to map both diversity and conflict.

Questions for Discussion

What are Hulsether's three opening maps of U.S. religion?
Where does your home town fit on these maps? Your religious affiliations? Your lack of them?
What parts of this “one week tour” of US religion are you most interested in visiting?
What is cultural hegemony? Why does Hulsether say it can hurt you not to pay attention to it?
Which groups exercise hegemony in the most important parts of your life? Remember, there is no such thing as “ hegemony” so you likely need more than one answer.
How do you define “religion?” Does this definition fit all the groups noted on p. 14? If it doesn’t, how do you feel about telling some of these self-described religious groups that they really aren’t religious?
Is it better to give equal time to lots of religious groups, including some that are far less influential than others, or to give priority attention to highly influential groups even if the trade-off is less comprehensive coverage?

Chapter One: Religion in North America Before the Twentieth Century (20)

THIS IS THE CHAPTER FOR FAST-FORWARDING AND INTRODUCING KEY PLAYERS

Native Americans Meet Europeans (20)

Red/white interplay, Europeans as latecomers, emergence myth, Meso-American history, Aztecs, demographic collapse, diversity of native cultures, oral tradition, gender balance, natives v/v rest of nature, mission/colonization (France vs. Spain vs. Russia), Wounded Knee, Native/European interchange, middle ground, resistance movements, Pueblo Revolt, mission schools.

From Red and White to Red, White, and Black (26)

African majority, Cherokee slavery, slave system, resistance vs. paternalism, cultural mixing, Afro-Caribbean religion, African-American Islam, conjure, missions and slavery, invisible institution, spirit possession, African-American Christians, National Baptist Convention, black Methodists.

Key Players in European-American Religion During the Colonial Era (32)

Religion in middle colonies (Pennsylvania and New York as models), Christianity (general), Protestantism (including use of Bible), sacraments, Martin Luther, Calvinists, Anabaptist, Mennonites/Amish, 1517, four key players, Spanish colonies, fur trade, Haiti, Maryland, Anglican (inc. factors of decline), Puritans, Congregationalists, Anne Hutchinson, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, unchurched, horse-shed Christians, popular magic.

Expanding the Cast of Key Players (39)

Great Awakenings, revivalists, Methodists, circuit riding, Baptists, Southern Baptist Convention, Deists, Thomas Jefferson, Unitarians, disestablishment (Virginia as model), First Amendment, limits of pluralism, Mormons (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith, gender and alternative religion, Shakers/Ann Lee, Mary Baker Eddy/Christian Science, Oneida Community/complex marriage, Spiritualists, Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Religion of Lost Cause, first KKK, Manifest Destiny, summary of key players.

______________________ SECTION BREAK _______________________________________

Chapter Two: Changes in the Religious Landscape in the Early Twentieth Century (49)

THIS IS THE OVERVIEW CHAPTER (FIRST OF THREE ON LATE 1800S TO AROUND 1950)

New Key Players on the Landscape: Jews and Roman Catholics (50)

Innovations, first Jewish immigrants, Reform Judaism, waves of immigration, Torah, women and Judaism, shellfish incident, family pews, Orthodox Judaism, generational patterns, suburbanization, Conservative Judaism, shuls with pools, Zionism, identification with Israel, Hadassah. Irish immigration, anti-Catholicism, Spanish colonies, Texas/California, Chinese-Americans, Catholic immigrant communities, education, Americanist controversy, organizational structure, subsidiarity.

Emergent Developments in the Protestant Mainstream (61)

Protestant establishment, civil millennialism, Benevolent Empire, ecumenism, National and World Councils of Churches, seven sisters, Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Lutheran immigrant communities, Congregationalists and Episcopalians (trends/momentum), Disciples of Christ, Churches of Christ, Holiness Movement, Salvation Army, serpent-handlers, Pentecostals, faith healing, tongue speaking, primitive vs. pragmatic, William Seymour, Azusa Street Revival, Church of God in Christ, Assemblies of God.

Three Final Groups, Plus Multiple Maps for Interactions of Key Players (68)

Orthodox Christians, Russians in Alaska, Russian and Greek Orthodox Churches, change in Mormonism, polygamy, Reynolds v. US, positive thinkers, New Thought, Helena Blavatsky/Theosophy, Norman Vincent Peale, ongoing north/south conflict, rural-urban splits, populism.

Chapter Three: Religion and Social Conflict in the Early Twentieth Century (77)

EXTENDING CHAPTER TWO, DEEPER DIVES INTO SELECTED SOCIO-POLITICAL CASES (YEARS BEFORE 1950)

Religion, Wealth, and the Working Class (78)

Breaks/stopovers, industrial revolution, labor conflict, questions on class and religion, free market theory v/v complex negotiations, Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie, Social Darwinism, Horatio Alger, Walter Rauschenbusch, social gospel, Progressivism, AFL, labor radicals, Interchurch World Movement, Catholic social teaching, Rerum Novarum, John Ryan, Catholic anti-socialism, dual unions, Al Smith, New Deal, Charles Coughlin, Dorothy Day.

Religion and the Politics of Gender (88)

Women's status in 1900, domestic ideal, Beecher's Bibles, female majority, feminization of religion, lodges, Mary vs. Eve, polygamy/celibacy, Bible on gender (including feminist readings), Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Woman's Bible, temperance, Frances Willard, WCTU, do-everything policy, temperance as feminist vs. anti-Catholic, nuns (women religious), Elizabeth Ann Seton, missions and women, women's ordination (stages), Holiness churches and ordination, New Women, fundamentalism and gender, flappers, muscular Christianity, gender contests inside evangelical churches.

Debates about War, Peace, and Foreign Relations (98)

Religious anti-imperialism, Twain's War Prayer, McKinley on Philippines, “under God”, Billy Graham and Catholics on Cold War, Reinhold Niebuhr, collapse of Prohibition, second disestablishment, social gospel pacifism, Moral Man and Immoral Society, Christian Century magazine, American Century, Niebuhr's reshuffled battle lines, Christianity and Crisis magazine, Niebuhrian realism, Cold War liberalism.

Chapter Four: Cultural Aspects of Religion in the Early Twentieth Century (108)

EXTENDING CHAPTER TWO, DEEPER DIVES INTO SELECTED CULTURAL CASES (YEARS BEFORE 1950)

Cultural Dimensions of Immigrant Religious Enclaves (108)

Push-pull dynamic, generational patterns, nativism, anti-Semitism, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, second KKK, 100% Americans, Coughlin and Huey Long, Jewish and German examples of push-pull, identifying with other nations, devotional Catholics (and its critics), Virgin of Guadalupe, festa of Madonna del Carmine (including ritual, ethnic, and gendered dimensions).

Religion and Popular Culture (117)

Consumer culture (in tension with Protestant work ethic), emerging entertainment, In His Steps, American Studies and religious music, defining popular religion, commodification as secularization, Man Nobody Knows, religion and jazz/blues, Pentecostals and race, Comstock Act, Hollywood Production Code, Legion of Decency, examples of censorship.

Battles for the Soul of Protestantism (126)

Bible on slavery, liberal Protestant thought, Shailer Matthews affirmations, J. Gresham Machen, fundamentalism, Billy Sunday, dispensationalism, come-outers, William Bell Riley, complex (not oversimplified) mapping, Pentecostals vs. “Baptist-types”, Scopes Trial, William Jennings Bryan, myth vs. reality of Scopes, Social Darwinism, Mencken on Tennessee.

___________________ SECTION BREAK ________________________________

Chapter Five: Shifts in the Religious Landscape From World War II to the Present (138)

THIS IS AN OVERVIEW CHAPTER (FIRST OF THREE ON YEARS FROM 1950 TO RECENT).

A Changing Map of Dazzling Religious Diversity (139)

Homogenization vs. diversity, civil rights movement, Marcus Garvey, Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, American Indian Movement, Native American Church (peyote church), American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Employment Division V. Smith, Cesar Chavez, Latino/a divides and growth, Día de los Muertos, post-1965 immigrants, complexities of counting Hindus and Muslims, Afro-Caribbean religion, Islam (demographics/divides), Sunni/Shi'a, Sufism, commonalities of Muslims, immigrant vs. convert, generations in Islam, Buddhist/Hindu growth, karma, samsara, polytheism, Buddhists on theism, celestial Buddhas, yoga, devotional Hindus, Hare Krishnas (ISKCON), Vedanta Society, Vivekananda, World's Parliament of Religions, separate worlds inside Hinduism, Buddhist growth and diversity.

Collapse and Restructuring in the Old Protestant Establishment (150)

Postwar consensus, suburbanization, white flight, culture war, liberal vs. evangelical growth, counter-culture, religion and 1960s movements, neo-evangelical, New Christian Right (NCR), Jerry Falwell, NCR as GOP base, evangelical moderates and greens, Jim Wallis/Sojourners, Golden Rule Christians, megachurch, free riders, voting with feet.

Trends Among Other Key Players (159)

Growth of secularism. Judaism: trends (suburbs, intermarriage, Orthodoxy), Hasidism, neoconservatives. Catholicism: emphases in culture war, Latino/a Catholics, natural law, Vatican II and subsequent reforms, John Paul II (liberal or conservative?), Benedict XVI, Humanae Vitae, abortion, debates on ordination and contraception, priest shortage, sex abuse scandal. New Age movement (history, themes), channeling, dialogue with Asia, Wicca, neopagans, Raelians, Heaven's Gate, overlap between New Age and others, Sun Myung Moon/Unification Church, deprogramming. Summary with expanded list of key players.

Chapter Six: Religion and Evolving Social Conflicts from World War II to Present (172)

EXTENDING CHAPTER FIVE, DEEPER DIVES INTO SELECTED SOCIO-POLITICAL CASES (YEARS AFTER 1950)

Faces of African-American Religion and Politics (172)

Recalling foundations, Hollywood racism, Great Migration, Martin Luther King, Jr., Montgomery Bus Boycott, insurgent consciousness, alliances in civil rights era, Civil and Voting Rights Acts, white Southern turn to GOP, diversity of black religion, Father Divine Peace Mission, conservatism in black churches, Creflo Dollar, Elijah Muhammad, Nation of Islam (NOI), change in NOI, Warith Deen Muhammad, Million Man March, Louis Farrakhan, Santería, Vodou, spirit possession, Jim Crow segregation vs. liberal multiculturalism, lynching, multiculturalism as a racial formation.

More on the Culture War (182)

Billy Graham and Nixon, prehistory of NCR, implicit politics of 1950s evangelicals, projects of NCR, Falwell/Moral Majority, Robertson/Christian Coalition, Dobson/Focus on the Family, Falwell on 9/11, Christian Nation, SBC purges, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (note: "cooperate" is a typo!), evangelicals as underdogs vs. hegemonic, Niebuhrian baseline for measuring change (review 104), conflict about Israel-Palestine, CALCAV, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Daniel Berrigan, Latin American left, Oscar Romero, sanctuary movement, changes in Christianity and Crisis, William Sloane Coffin, feminist theologies/spiritualities, women's ordination, Mary Daly, Soelle vs. neocons vs. secular left.

Thinking about the End of the World with Conservative Protestants (190)

Left Behind, dispensationalism, range of anti-Christs, end-times and dissent, populism, Dominion theology, fatalism, Turner Diaries, Christian Identity movement, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, seed-faith gifts, LaHayes as NCR leaders, Robertson end-times books, political impact (v/v UN and Israel), Bush and end-times, review continuum of end-times discourse, Promise Keepers (in footnote.)

Chapter Seven: Cultural Aspects of Religion from World War II to the Present (204)

EXTENDING CHAPTER FIVE, DEEPER DIVES INTO SELECTED CULTURAL CASES (YEARS AFTER 1950)

Creationism and the Emergence of a Postmodern Evangelicalism (204)

Day-age creationism, theistic evolution, young earth creationism, intelligent design, strategic dilemma of ID, postmodern theory (multiple true theories?), persuasive power of theories, NCR science activism, Falwell creation museum.

Debates about Accepting Gay and Lesbian People (208)

Settled patterns in gender debates, GLBT ordination, ex-gay ministry, anti-GLBT arguments (from natural law, Bible), mainline religion and GLBTs, new morality (pro sexual revolution), judging sin vs. celebrating embodiment, Metropolitan Community Church, pro-GLBT arguments, mutuality, Biblical model of family (compare 91).

Religion in an Age of Consumerism (212)

Consumerism and branding, homogenization vs. decentralization, J. Z. Knight, critics of consumerism, New Age as consumerist, Yogananda, Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, Transcendental Meditation, PTL Club, megachurches (e.g. Willow Creek), evangelical marketing, “religion swallowed up?” (compare 120), end of film censorship and rise of TV, trend in film (bad for religion?), backlash against Code, ongoing religion in film, popular art as counter-hegemonic.

Faces of the Buddhist Sangha in America (218)

(Review pp. 146-150!). Divides and historic branches, Dalai Lama, tug-of-war among root images, nirvana, emptiness/no-self, Buddha/Dharma/Sangha (common to all Buddhists), Buddha-nature and bodhisattvas, Amida, Pure Land, other-power, concentration camps, Buddhist Churches of America, immigrant vs. convert forms, Zen, self-power, koan, Suzuki, Beats (e.g. Kerouac), Zen and counter-culture, Bernard Glassman and problem of supporting monastic practice, Japanese vs. American Zen, women in Zen, engaged Buddhism (in footnote).

Race and Religious Tradition in an Era of Cultural Hybridity (223)

Hybridity, religion and race at festa, anti-Islamic discourse, combating stereotypes, push-pull and generational dynamic, New Age hijacking Native religion, “disappearing Indians,” blending Native and Christian traditions, lose-lose (or win-win) efforts at solidarity, advice for Mohawk ceremony, Cowboy and Indian Alliance, Black Elk Speaks (in footnote).

Mainstream Culture Warriors Respond to Rising Pluralism (229)

Liberals vs. NCR on pluralism, "level playing field" (what counts as evidence?), diversity as demonic, new class vs. old (must new class be liberal?), Thomas Frank on right-wing populism.

___________________ SECTION BREAK ________________________________

Conclusion: Consensus, Pluralism, and Hegemony in US Religion (235)

Inventory of terms vs. model for analysis. Consensus model: Emile Durkheim, Catholic vs. Protestant emphases, moderate consensus model, civil religion, civil rights and civil religion. Pluralist model: theology of pluralism, blending civil religion and moderate pluralism, moderate vs. radical pluralists, postmodern theory and radical pluralists. Hegemony/counterhegemony model: consensus as hegemony, multiculturalism (counter-hegemonic or hegemonic?), common good (potentially counter-hegemonic?). Discerning priorities for analysis/action, hegemony analysis as framework (not substitute) for thinking.

Questions for Discussion

What is a consensus model of religion? What examples from earlier in the book best fit the model?
What is a pluralist model of religion? What examples fit it?
What is a hegemony/counterhegemony model? What examples fit it?
How do you judge the strengths and weaknesses of these three models in contexts most important to you?
Some religious people recommend a blended model that highlights working for a common good. Do you see this as more as an effort at consensus/hegemony or more as counter-hegemonic? In what contexts? What does “common good” mean anyway?
Some religious people treat underlining and celebrating pluralism as something counter-hegemonic. Others see this functioning as an emergent form of hegemony that blinds us to power conflicts. Why is this so? Who has the stronger arguments? In what contexts?
Hulsether writes that in many contexts it is “perverse” to study religion without paying priority attention to unnecessary suffering related to religious conflict. How do you respond to this idea?