Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Sojourners in the Wilderness: The Christian Right in Comparative Perspective (Religious Forces in the Modern Political World)

While the Christian Right has been the subject of a good deal of scholarly analysis, it has not been adequately studied within a comparative context―across time, across different institutional systems, or across different religious communities. In Sojourners in the Wilderness, a host of distinguished scholars examine these dimensions of the Christian Right. The contributors analyze the Christian Right historically―what is its relationship today with earlier manifestations? How have its organizational structures and strategies changed over time?; Sociologically―what are the current opportunities for Christian Right inroads within African-American, Catholic, and Jewish communities?; and politically―what accounts for the affinity between many evangelical Protestants and the Christian Right within the American political context, while such an affinity appears to be lacking in other political contexts? Review The volume attests to the sophistication in the measurment of religious variables made available to researchers investigating the relationship between religion and political behavior, including data from the American National Election Studies, polls sponsored by the Pew Foundation and the American Jewish Committee, and Voter News Service exit polls.--Journal Of Interdisciplinary StudiesSince the reawakening of the Christian Right as a major political force in the 1990s, this movement has been widely discussed and little understood. Here the history and development of this political force is laid out in all of its diversity and complexity. This collection of essays by some of the leading scholars in the field will help anyone trying to make sense of religion's impact on politics.--John McGlennon, College of William and MaryThose who mistakenly assume the new Christian Right is a theocratic colossus threatening to control policy through electoral institutions need to read this book, written by many of the best scholars in the religion and politics field. Its painstaking analyses not only trace the political styles of religious movements in American history, with comparisons with other political systems, but define the real limitations of the current Christian Right. Beyond the big (and growing) evangelical tent, the movement has not met with much success as political proselytizer and mobilizer. Interestingly, the book also shows how absolutistic group goals are transformed by a gradualistic democratic system.--David C. Leege, University of Notre Dame About the Author Corwin E. Smidt and James M. Penning are both professors of political science at Calvin College.