Religion and American cultures : an encyclopedia of traditions, diversity, and popular expressions / Gary Laderman and Luis León, editors ; foreword by Amanda Porterfield

Includes bibliographical references and index

Looks at religious diversity in the United States from mainstream faiths to Wicca and Zen, discussing faith, religious practices, traditions, and history of religions. The only multicultural survey of established and new American religions, this exhaustive three volume encyclopedia explores the fascinating interactions between religion and ethnicity, gender, regionalism, and popular culture. This three volume reference for a general and student (high school and above) audience was prepared under the editorial leadership of Laderman (American religious history and culture, Emory U. and Latino studies and religious studies, U. of California, Berkeley), with signed contributions from a long list of scholars. It comprises 26 anchor essays and some 120 supplementary essays, each with cross references and a bibliography, examining religions both within and outside of the mainstream, as well as themes such as sacred spaces, sexuality, films, and religious communities on the Internet. The final volume offers primary source documents that exemplify religious diversity. Over 150 essays written by more than 140 expert scholars, richly illustrated with images depicting a wide range of religious figures and activities, as well as significant religious sites, in the United States. An entire volume of primary source documents that captures the reality of religious diversity in American culture, including a copy of Cecil B. DeMille's essay the Screen as Religious Teacher (published in 1927) as well as more conventional materials on Christian Science, the New Age, and Buddhism, to name only a few of the religious traditions covered in this collection.