David Campbell's and Robert Putnam's American Grace left me historically puzzled on my first reading, and my second didn't clear things up.…
A historian’s reaction to American Grace
American politics
9/11 chronomania
Under its congressional mandate to “examine and report upon the facts and causes relating to the terrorist attacks…[and] make a…
Arguing against anti-Shari‘a legislation
In The New York Times, Eliyahu Stern, assistant professor of Religious Studies and History at Yale, argues that current efforts…
Banning Shari‘a
Ten years after 9/11, Americans cope with insecurity in their day-to-day welfare at home, while contending with continued warnings of…
More on religion in the presidential race
At The Daily Beast, Micheal Medved joins the current discussion, set off by Bill Keller's recent Times article, on religion's…
Questioning religion’s role in the presidential race
At the Scoop, Maura Jane Farrelly rounds up some responses (and adds her own) to Bill Keller's Times Magazine editorial…
Fear, Inc.: a report on the roots of Islamophobia
The Center for American Progress has a new report out on the groups and individuals fomenting the rising tide of…
Paul Kahn’s mis-prognosis of America’s social imaginary
As I argued in my previous post, there are indications that Paul Kahn subscribes to Carl Schmitt’s belief in the…
The integrity of theory
I am delighted that my new book on political theology has provided the occasion for this conversation. The editors have…
What federal agents are reading about Islam
Spencer Ackerman, at Wired's Danger Room blog, reports on the recommended reading on Islam provided to incoming FBI agents, as…