Religion and Social Change

About the Book

America likes to think of itself as a nation with a strict separation of church and state, but the reality is far more complicated. In this wide-ranging survey, sociologist Gerhard Falk examines how religion has quietly shaped nearly every corner of American life — from marriage and education to politics, economics, and the arts. Falk draws on decades of scholarship to trace the influence of the three dominant American faith traditions: Catholicism, mainline Protestantism, and Judaism.

The book covers an impressive amount of ground. Falk looks at how religious institutions have driven social movements, including Prohibition, the women's liberation movement, and the civil rights struggle of Freedom Summer in 1964. He examines landmark Supreme Court decisions on religion in public schools and the rights of prisoners and military personnel. He also explores the darker side of religious history in America, including the Salem witch trials, the persecution of Mormons, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the murder of Leo Frank, and religiously motivated violence against Catholics, Jews, and Muslims.

But Falk is equally interested in religion's creative and humanitarian contributions — how faith communities have shaped American music from Gregorian chant to gospel, funded hospitals and homeless shelters, and inspired centuries of visual art. He also takes a clear-eyed look at televangelism, religious print media, and how religious belief shapes voting patterns and the makeup of Congress. For readers trying to understand why religion still matters so much in a modern, secular age, this book offers a genuinely useful map of the terrain.