Reading Politics and Faith

--Will Keillor, Acquisitions

With the party conventions over and the election approaching, I have been thinking a bit about politics and religion.  Last week I heard an interview on NPR about the recent Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life study that found that a majority of Americans think that religious groups should not speak out about politics (there are some other interesting studies as well you might want to check out while you're at that site).  The interview went on to a discussion of the separation of church and state and so forth.  The interesting thing was that the interview followed this MPR story which featured a religious leader suggesting:

it will take uncommon alliances, such as religious and business groups, talking to each other to agree on how to fix the broken U.S. health care system.

Of course, the first joint appearance of the two candidates was at Saddleback Church, home to Rick Warren.  Krista Tippett did an interview with the Warrens that discusses some of the issues related to the intersection of religion and politics (another site worth visiting). 

All of these things got me thinking about my own struggles to make sense of how faith and politics should relate, both in my own life in my community and in my life as a voting citizen.  If you've been thinking about some of these things as well during this political season, the library has a number of books that you might find useful in engaging with this topic.  Here's a list of a few relatively new acquisitions, some of which may be shelved in our new books area (by the way, many of them I found using the subject search "Christianity and politics" in our catalog, MARTIN):

	Title
	The great awakening : reviving faith & politics in a post-religious right America By Jim Wallis [foreword by Jimmy Carter]. HarperOne, c2008. Call Number: BV3793 .W34
	God and country? : diverse perspectives on Christianity and patriotism  edited by Michael G. Long and Tracy Wenger Sadd. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Call Number: BR115.P7 G567
	Reaping the whirlwind : liberal democracy and the religious axis By John R. Pottenger. Georgetown University Press, c2007. Call Number: BL65.P7 P67
	Religion in public life : must faith be privatized? By Roger Trigg. Oxford University Press, 2007 Call Number: BL65.S8 T74
	Why politics needs religion : the place of religious arguments in the public square By Brendan Sweetman. IVP Academic, c2006. Call Number: BL65.P7 S95
	Politics in the parish : the political influence of Catholic priests By Gregory Allen Smith. Georgetown University Press, c2008 Call Number: BX1407.P63 S624
	Religion in American politics : a short history By Frank Lambert Princeton University Press, c2008. Call Number: BR516 .L352
	The sleeping giant has awoken : the new politics of religion in the United States Edited by J. W. Robbins and N. Magee Continuum, c2008 Call Number: BR1642.U5 S6143
	Wayward Christian soldiers : freeing the Gospel from political captivity By Charles Marsh. Oxford University Press, 2007 Call Numer: BR1642.U5 M368