The cross is one of Christianity’s most distinctive symbols, increasingly cutting across Catholic/Protestant and other denominational divides. Although the US acknowledges no official religion, a variety of both Christian and non-Christian denominations have flourished. Crosses dot the landscape, sometimes towering over it and at other times simply marking a grave or the site of a traffic accident, or providing a place for contemplation. Courts continue to decide whether it is better to remove long-standing crosses on public property to protect the separation of church and state, or whether removing such symbols might be misinterpreted as expressing hostility towards religion. Whether marking identity, triumph, love, grief, or sacrifice, the cross remains important in American life and continues to be the subject of works of art, music, literature, and political, religious, and social rhetoric, all of which this volume addresses in an accessible A-to-Z format.

Was America founded on Judeo-Christian principles? Are the Ten Commandments the basis for American law? In the paperback edition of this critically acclaimed book, a constitutional attorney settles the debate about religion's role in America's founding. In today's contentious political climate, understanding religion's role in American government is more important than ever. Christian nationalists assert that our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and advocate an agenda based on this popular historical claim. But is this belief true? The Founding Myth answers the question once and for all. Andrew L. Seidel builds his case by comparing the Ten Commandments to the Constitution and contrasting biblical doctrine with America's founding philosophy, showing that the Declaration of Independence contradicts the Bible. Thoroughly researched, this persuasively argued and fascinating book proves that America was not built on the Bible and that Christian nationalism is un-American. Includes a new epilogue reflecting on the role Christian nationalism played in fomenting the January 6, 2021, insurrection in DC and the warnings the nation missed.

Drawing on a variety of literature, poetry, films, TV shows, and social media posts, and an original survey of 350 US Muslims, Muslim Prayer in American Public Life provides an in-depth examination of the lived experiences of Muslim prayer practices in the United States today.

The cross stirs intense feelings among Christians as well as non-Christians. Robin Jensen takes readers on an intellectual and spiritual journey through the two-thousand-year evolution of the cross as an idea and an artifact, illuminating the controversies—along with the forms of devotion—this central symbol of Christianity inspires. Jesus’s death on the cross posed a dilemma for Saint Paul and the early Church fathers. Crucifixion was a humiliating form of execution reserved for slaves and criminals. How could their messiah and savior have been subjected to such an ignominious death? Wrestling with this paradox, they reimagined the cross as a triumphant expression of Christ’s sacrificial love and miraculous resurrection. Over time, the symbol’s transformation raised myriad doctrinal questions, particularly about the crucifix—the cross with the figure of Christ—and whether it should emphasize Jesus’s suffering or his glorification. How should Jesus’s body be depicted: alive or dead, naked or dressed? Should it be shown at all? Jensen’s wide-ranging study focuses on the cross in painting and literature, the quest for the “true cross” in Jerusalem, and the symbol’s role in conflicts from the Crusades to wars of colonial conquest. The Cross also reveals how Jews and Muslims viewed the most sacred of all Christian emblems and explains its role in public life in the West today.

"We are," said Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "a religious people," and his observation is continually borne out in every aspect of American public life. Religious ideals underlay the founding of the colonies and the firming of the new nation; the activities of churches have been closely interwined with politics in the abolition of slavery, the drive for women's suffrage, the prohibition of liquor,and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The recent revival of arguments over the participation of relgious groups in politics points up the continuing controversey about the separation of church and state. In this study, A. James Reichley places religion and politics within a conceptual framework that considers the values in which both are rooted and examines, in light of that framework, the actual impact of religion and religious groups on American public life. He analyzes the underlying causes and issues involved, their contemporary impact, and their continuing evolution. Finally he discusses how the involvement of religious groups in politics can be carried on within the context of the separation of church and state without threat to civil liberties or seculat politicalization of religion.

Author, professor (Southeastern Seminary), and Fox op- ed columnist Bruce Riley Ashford writers a series of letters to a young college student who is struggling to make sense of how to be a Christian amid contemporary American politics.

Arguing from Scripture and history, the author makes a compelling case that getting too close to any political or national ideology is disastrous for the church and harmful to society.