New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life / Edition 1

by Bruce Lawrence

Overview

As a result of immigration from Asia in the wake of the passage of the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act, the fastest-growing religions in America—faster than all Christian groups combined—are Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. In this remarkable book, a leading scholar of religion asks how these new faiths have changed or have been changed by the pluralist face of American civil society. How have these new religious minorities been affected by the deep-rooted American ambivalence toward foreign traditions?

Bruce Lawrence casts a comparativist eye on the American religious scene and explores the ways in which various groups of Asian immigrants have, and sometimes have not, been integrated into the American polity. In the process, he offers several important correctives. Too often, Lawrence argues, profiles of Asian American experience focus exclusively on immigrants from East Asia, to the exclusion of South Asian and West Asian voices.New Faiths, Old Fears seeks to make all Asians equally important and to break free of traditional geographic markers, most reflecting nineteenth-century imperial values, that artificially divide the people of the "Middle East" from the rest of Asia, with whom they share certain religious and cultural ties. Iranian Americans, in particular, emerge as a vital bridge group whose experience tells us much about how Asians of many different backgrounds have found their way in their new nation.

Beyond simply expanding and refining our conception of who Asian Americans are, Lawrence draws instructive comparisons between Asian Americans' experience and those of Native, African, and Hispanic Americans, exposing undercurrents of racial and class antagonisms. He concludes that we cannot fully comprehend the contours and valences of culture and religion in America without understanding how this racialized class prejudice shapes the views of the dominant class toward immigrants and other marginal groups.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231115216
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/20/2004
Series:	American Lectures on the History of Religions , #17
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bruce B. Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Professor of Religion and chair of the department of religion at Duke University. He is the author of many books, including Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. American Religion as Commodity Culture
2. Civil Society and Immigrants
3. New Immigrants as Pariahs
4. Religious Options for Urban Immigrants
5. Reimagining Religious Pluralism
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Azim Nanji

New Faiths, Old Fears speaks to one of the most pressing issues of our time -- pluralism and its role in the construction of civil society. This book illuminates the changing religious landscape of America and clarifies issues related to inter-cultural and inter-religious pluralism.

— Azim Nanji, director, Ismaili Institute, London

The Reverend Canon Edward W. Rodman

Lawrence's breadth of scholarship, salient geopolitical sophistication and evident respect for all who have come to this country is breathtaking.

— The Reverend Canon Edward W. Rodman, professor of pastoral theology and urban ministry, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Robert Gregg

This book holds strong challenges for students of immigration and immigrant experiences, for culture and media theorists, for scholars of race and ethnicity, for religionists (academic and practicing), for champions of 'the American way of life,'for proponents of multiculturalism, and for all who ponder what would make for a civil society.

— Robert Gregg, Stanford University

Alan F. Segal

This is the place to visit to join the conversation about religion in America in the twenty-first century.

Editorial Reviews

Bruce Lawrence concludes his thought-provoking essay with a powerful critique of multicultural approaches that ignore divergencies within religious traditions...

Times Literary Supplement - Malise Ruthven

[Lawrence] speaks at length on the social, political, and religious tensions within American culture today... recommended.

Choice

a compelling, informed critique and analysis that should provoke citizens to a finer citizenship

Journal of the American Academy of Religion - James L. Peacock

an inventive and timely exploration of contemporary American religion, politics, and culture, and exploration that will surely stimulate further research and discussion

— Karen Leonard

History of Religions

a compelling, informed critique and analysis that should provoke citizens to a finer citizenship

— James L. Peacock

Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Bruce Lawrence concludes his thought-provoking essay with a powerful critique of multicultural approaches that ignore divergencies within religious traditions...

— Malise Ruthven

Times Literary Supplement

As an anthropologist, Goody takes his readers into areas often ignored by writers schooled in the discourse of “Islam versus the West”.... Goody’s is a somewhat eclectic overview, containing flashes of insight into unfamiliar corners of history.
—The Times Literary Supplement

Malise Ruthven

an inventive and timely exploration of contemporary American religion, politics, and culture, and exploration that will surely stimulate further research and discussion

History of Religions - Karen Leonard

This book not only fills in some key theoretical gaps, but also offers new and hopeful models for conceiving of American diversity.

American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences