Religion is Raced: Understanding American Religion in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville thoroughly discussed the prominent role of religion in American society in his famous book “Democracy in America.” Today, Americans are far more religious than people living in other rich countries. Race has also been a crucial social institution in the United States, from the slavery of Africans and the genocide of Native Americans to Jim Crow and segregation all the way to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people and police brutality. It is remarkable, then, that scholars have paid scant attention at how religion and race intersect in American society and, more specifically, in American politics. Grace Yukich and Penny Edgell have made an enormous contribution to fill this gap by editing a volume about “raced religion” in the United States.