Guides: Religious Diversity: Home

Introduction

The land now known as the United States has a long history of religious diversity, starting with the variety of spiritual and religious practices of the native peoples that continue to this day. Many European colonists traveled to North America in order to escape religious conflict and to be able to worship in the manner of their choosing. These colonists believed religious freedom to be so important and essential that they and their descendants enshrined the concept in colonial charters, state constitutions, and, eventually, the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." This legal protection of a fundamental human right has allowed religious diversity to enhance the cultural, social, and intellectual life of the United States.

Furthermore, as USD's Center for Inclusion and Diversity states, "As a Catholic institution, the University of San Diego seeks to represent the diversity and beauty of God’s creation as a way to understand and work to eliminate injustices on our campus, in our local community, and around the world. The University is committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive and collaborative community and values students, faculty and staff from different backgrounds and faith traditions. As a university committed to academic excellence, we strive to include diverse perspectives as a way of maximizing the transformative potential of learning, teaching, and scholarship."

This guide includes resources that explore religious diversity and its impact on the law.

Online Resources

A Legal Approach to Questions About Religious Diversity (Oxford Handbooks Online)
Academic legal research and the associated method of legal analysis can significantly enhance the study of religion. This chapter summarizes the evolving legal definitions of religion, surveys some central legal questions regarding American religions, and introduces a five-step legal methodology for scholars of religion to apply to questions of religious diversity. The purpose is to enable scholars of religion to demonstrate a sophisticated level of legal literacy and thus to more effectively assist the courts in achieving religious literacy.
Pew Research Center: Religion
Pew Research Center studies a wide range of topics including U.S. politics and policy; journalism and media; internet and technology; science and society; race and ethnicity; religion and public life; global attitudes and trends; and U.S. social and demographic trends.
The Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley: Religious Diversity in America
How do social and political institutions create or inhibit religious diversity and pluralism? And, how does religious diversity affect political and social institutions, religious tolerance in society, and legal and cultural inclusion of religious minorities?
The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
An ongoing research effort, the Pluralism Project studies and interprets religious diversity and interfaith relations in the United States.

Multimedia Resources

The Theory of Change Podcast: Religious Diversity: Contemplating the Experiences of the Cultural Other
The Theory of Change Podcast showcases topics relevant to counselors and counselor educators. The host of this podcast discusses counseling theory, social/cultural issues, and the working dynamics of the modern practitioner. Guests are leading thinkers and practitioners in counseling and related fields that exemplify excellence in their respective disciplines. Host: Dr. Alfredo Palacios Assistant Professor of Clinical Mental Health Counseling at The University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
Interfaith Matters Podcast
“Interfaith Matters” is an original podcast series from The Interfaith Center of New York that explores the intersection of faith and social justice. Since its launch in 2016, the series has interviewed leaders from many diverse traditions and communities, educating people about the faith practices of their neighbors, and exploring how faith leadership can activate communities to address social justice concerns.
God in America (documentary series)
God in America explores the tumultuous 400-year history of the intersection of religion and public life in America, from the first European settlements to the 2008 presidential election.
On Common Ground (documentary series)
On Common Ground is a series of videos produced by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University focusing on the changing religious landscape of the United States.
Acting on Faith (documentary)
Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America is a documentary film that offers an intimate look at the lives and work of three American women – one Buddhist, one Hindu, and one Muslim – for whom faith, activism, and identity are deeply intertwined.

Books at USD

The Critical Analysis of Religious Diversity by Lene Kühle (Editor); Jø Borup (Editor); William Hoverd (Editor)
ISBN: 9789004367111
Publication Date: 2018-07-05
Drawing on international and thematic case studies, The Critical Analysis of Religious Diversity asks its readers to pay attention to the assumptions and processes by which scholars, religious practitioners and states construct religious diversity. The study has three foci: theoretical and methodological issues; religious diversity in non-Western contexts; and religious diversity in social contexts. Together, these trans-contextual studies are utilised to develop a critical analysis exploring how agency, power and language construct understandings of religious diversity.
Defending American religious neutrality by Andrew Koppelman
ISBN: 9780674066465
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Although it is often charged with hostility toward religion, First Amendment doctrine in fact treats religion as a distinctive human good. It insists, however, that this good be understood abstractly, without the state taking sides on any theological question. Here, a leading scholar of constitutional law explains the logic of this uniquely American form of neutrality--more religion-centered than liberal theorists propose, and less overtly theistic than conservatives advocate.
One nation, divisible : how regional religious differences shape American politics by Mark Silk; Andrew Walsh
ISBN: 9780742558458
Publication Date: 2008-06-27
From the evangelical South to Catholic New England to the 'unchurched' Pacific Northwest, regional religious differences have a dramatic impact on public life not only in the regions themselves but also in the United States as a whole. As the interplay between religion and politics continues to dominate public discussion, understanding regional similarities and differences is key to understanding the debate around such national issues as health care, immigration, and the environment.
Out of Many Faiths by Eboo Patel
ISBN: 9780691196961
Publication Date: 2019-08-27
A timely defense of religious diversity and its centrality to American identity. America is the most religiously diverse nation on the planet. In today's volatile climate of religious conflict and distrust, how do we affirm that the American promise is deeply intertwined with how each of us engages with people of different beliefs? Eboo Patel, former faith adviser to Barack Obama, provides answers to this timely question.
Religion, Pluralism, and Reconciling Difference by W. Cole Durham, Jr. (Editor); Donlu D. Thayer (Editor)
ISBN: 9781472464071
Publication Date: 2018-11-20
We live in an increasingly pluralized world. This sociological reality has become the irreversible destiny of humankind. Even once religiously homogeneous societies are becoming increasingly diverse. Religious freedom is modernity's most profound if sometimes forgotten answer to the resulting social pressures, but the tide of pluralization threatens to overwhelm that freedom's stabilizing force. Religion, Pluralism, and Reconciling Difference is aimed at exploring differing ways of grappling with the resulting tensions, and then asking, will the tensions ultimately yield poisonous polarization that erodes all hope of meaningful community?
Religious Freedom under Scrutiny by Heiner Bielefeldt; Michael Wiener
ISBN: 9780812251807
Publication Date: 2019-12-20
Freedom of religion or belief is deeply entrenched in international human rights conventions and constitutional traditions around the world. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as does the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the United Nations General Assembly adopted in 1966. A rich jurisprudence on freedom of religion or belief is based on the European Convention on Human Rights, drafted in 1950 by the Council of Europe. Similar regional guarantees exist in the framework of the Organization of American States as well as within the African Union.
The rhetoric of religious freedom in the United States by Eric C. Miller (Editor, Contribution by)
ISBN: 9781498561488
Publication Date: 2017-11-22
Though much has already been written on religious freedom in the United States, these treatments have come mostly from historians, legal scholars, and advocates, with relatively little attention from rhetorical critics. In The Rhetoric of Religious Freedom in the United States, fifteen scholars from this field address the variety of forms that free, public religiosity may assume, and which rhetorical techniques are operative in a public square populated by a diversity of religious-political actors.
Secularism or democracy? : associational governance of religious diversity by Veit Bader
ISBN: 9789053569993
Publication Date: 2008-02-15
Policies dealing with religious diversity in liberal democratic states--as well as the established institutions that enforce those policies--are increasingly under pressure. Politics and political theory are caught in a trap between the fully secularized state and neo-corporate regimes of selective cooperation between states and organized religion. This volume proposes an original, comprehensive, and multidisciplinary approach to problems of governing religious diversity--combining moral and political philosophy, constitutional law, history, sociology, and religious anthropology.
Secular States and Religious Diversity by Bruce J. Berman; André Laliberté (Editor)
ISBN: 9780774825146
Publication Date: 2013-10-25
Nation-states have seen the rise of religious pluralism within their borders, brought about by global migration and the challenge of radical religious movements. This book explores the meaning of secularism and religious freedom in these new contexts. The contributors chart the impact of globalization, the varying forms of secularism in Western states, and the different kinds of relations between states and religious institutions in the historical traditions and contemporary politics of Islamic, Indic, and Chinese societies. They also examine the limitations and dilemmas of governmental responses to unprecedented diversity, and grapple with the question of how secular states deal (and should deal) with such pluralism.