Religion in the Age of Obama

Description

This is the first book to focus on the significance of religion during President Obama's years in the White House. Addressing issues ranging from identity politics, immigration, income inequality, Islamophobia and international affairs, Religion in the Age of Obama explores the religious and moral underpinnings of the Obama presidency and subsequent debates regarding his tenure in the White House. It provides an analysis of Obama's beliefs and their relationship to his vision of public life, as well as the way in which the general ethos of religion and non-religion has shifted over the past decade in the United States under his presidency. Topics include how Obama has employed religious rhetoric in response to both international and domestic events, his attempt to inhabit a kind of Blackness that comforts and reassures rather than challenges White America, the limits of Christian hospitality within U.S. immigration policy and the racialization of Islam in the U.S. national imagination. Religion in the Age of Obama shows that the years of the Obama presidency served as a watershed moment of significant reorganization of the role of religion in national public life. It is a timely contribution to debates on religion, race and public life in the United States.

Juan M. Floyd-Thomas is Associate Professor of African American Religious History in the Vanderbilt Divinity School and The Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University, USA. Anthony B. Pinn is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, Professor of Religion and Director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) at Rice University, USA.

...This book, which moves deftly between overt religious expression and covert religious ideology, is not only a crucial addition to the scholarship on the Obama years but also to the field of religion and politics. * Reading Religion * A timely and wide-ranging exploration of a vitally important topic. Religion in the Age of Obama is challenging and compelling in equal measure. * Stephen Tuck, Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford, UK * This book goes further than previous religious reflections on the faith of American presidents. It offers new insights into the interplay of religion, gender and ethnicity in the President Obama presidency, and considers the international impact of his faith-based politics. A diverse range of theological perspectives are skilfully inter-woven into a rich tapestry of analyses, which underlines the continuing importance of 'race,' and religion on the American political landscape, and also, the undeniable influence of this American phenomenon across the world. * Robert Beckford, Professor of Theology and Culture in the African Diaspora, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK * Religion still matters - but how and where? This book will sustainably change our prevalent perceptions of the role of religion(s) in public life. * Jurgen Manemann, Director of the Hanover Institute for Philosophical Research, Germany *