In addition to being a religious country--over ninety percent of Americans believe in God--the United States is also home to more immigrants than ever before. Churches and Charity in the Immigrant City focuses on the intersection of religion and civic engagement among Miami's immigrant and minority groups. The contributors examine the role of religious organizations in developing social relationships and how these relationships affect the broader civic world. Essays, for example, consider the role of leadership in the promotion and creation of "civic social capital" in a Haitian Catholic church, transnational ties between Cuban Catholics in Miami and Havana, and several African American congregations that serve as key comparisons of civic engagement among minorities. This book is important not only for its theoretical contributions to the sociology of religion, but also because it gives us a unique glimpse into immigrants' civic and religious lives in urban America.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Migration presents the story of religion and migration predominantly through the experiences of Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists, considering intersectional issues including race, ethnicity, class, gender and generation throughout. Many chapters are grounded in embodied ethnography including participant observation fieldwork, interviews, oral history collections and qualitative analysis, drawing on sociological and anthropological theory, as well as non-western and historical approaches to religion. Chapters also chronicle migration in regional, transnational, multicultural and populist contexts, examining everyday religiosity and religion across generations. The volume includes chapters on Islam and Muslim identity, Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhism, Filipino and Korean religiosity and Polish Catholicism.

This collection examines how immigration law shapes immigrant illegality, the concept of immigrant illegality, and how its power is wielded and resisted.

"This handbook is organized by various themes with the study of U.S. Latina/x/o Christianities. Keeping in mind that the Oxford Handbooks are geared toward graduate students and professors, the organization and layout of this handbook provides a thorough examination of interlocking themes within the academic study of Latina/x/o Christian histories, sociologies, and anthropologies. These essays, taken individually and collectively, pay attention to both the diachronic (over time, historical) as well as the synchronic (contemporary). Moreover, the essays cover the major U.S. Latina/x/o ethnic groups as well as major Christian denominations and movements. Finally, essays in the handbook attend to important intersectional realities that include empire, migration, diaspora, hybridities, borderlands, and gender"--

Asylum-Seeking, Migration and Church addresses one of the most pressing issues confronting contemporary society. How are we to engage with migrants? Drawing on studies of church engagement with asylum seekers in the UK and critical immigration and refugee issues in North America, Snyder presents an extended theological reflection on both the issue of asylum-seeking and the fears of established populations surrounding immigration. This book outlines ways in which churches are currently supporting asylum seekers, encouraging closer engagement with people seen as 'other' and more thoughtful responses to newcomers. Creatively exploring biblical and theological traditions surrounding the 'stranger', Snyder argues that as well as practising a vision of inclusive community churches would do well to engage with established population fears. Trends in global migration and the dynamics of fear and hostility surrounding immigration are critically and creatively explored throughout the book. Inviting more complex, nuanced responses to asylum seekers and immigrants, this book offers invaluable insights to those interested in Christian ethics, practical theology, social work, mission and faith and social action, as well as those working in the field of migration.

We are living in the "Age of Migration" and migration has a profound impact on all aspects of society and on religious institutions. While there is significant research on migration in the social sciences, little study has been done to understand the impact of migration on Christianity. This book investigates this important topic and the ramifications for Christian theology and ethics. It begins with anthropological and sociological perspectives on the mutual impact between migration and Christianity, followed by a re-reading of certain events in the Hebrew Scripture, the New Testament, and Church history to highlight the central role of migration in the formation of Israel and Christianity. Then follow attempts to reinterpret in the light of migration the basic Christian beliefs regarding God, Christ, and church. The next part studies how migration raises new issues for Christian ethics such as human dignity and human rights, state rights, social justice and solidarity, and ecological justice. The last part explores what is known as "Practical Theology" by examining the implications of migration for issues such as liturgy and worship, spirituality, architecture, and education.

This extensive work explores the changing world of religions, faiths and practices. It discusses a broad range of issues and phenomena that are related to religion, including nature, ethics, secularization, gender and identity. Broadening the context, it studies the interrelation between religion and other fields, including education, business, economics and law. The book presents a vast array of examples to illustrate the changes that have taken place and have led to a new world map of religions. Beginning with an introduction of the concept of the “changing world religion map”, the book first focuses on nature, ethics and the environment. It examines humankind’s eternal search for the sacred, and discusses the emergence of “green” religion as a theme that cuts across many faiths. Next, the book turns to the theme of the pilgrimage, illustrated by many examples from all parts of the world. In its discussion of the interrelation between religion and education, it looks at the role of missionary movements. It explains the relationship between religion, business, economics and law by means of a discussion of legal and moral frameworks, and the financial and business issues of religious organizations. The next part of the book explores the many “new faces” that are part of the religious landscape and culture of the Global North (Europe, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada) and the Global South (Latin America, Africa and Asia). It does so by looking at specific population movements, diasporas, and the impact of globalization. The volume next turns to secularization as both a phenomenon occurring in the Global religious North, and as an emerging and distinguishing feature in the metropolitan, cosmopolitan and gateway cities and regions in the Global South. The final part of the book explores the changing world of religion in regards to gender and identity issues, the political/religious nexus, and the new worlds associated with the virtual technologies and visual media.

Informative guide offering interpretation and analysis of African immigrant Christianities in Western societies and their impact on the wider local-global religious scene.

This is the first book to explore how religious movements and actors shape and are shaped by aspects of global city dynamics. Theoretically grounded and empirically informed, Religion and the Global City advances discussions in the field of urban religion, and establishes future research directions. David Garbin and Anna Strhan bring together a wealth of ethnographically rich and vivid case studies in a diversity of urban settings, in both Global North and Global South contexts. These case studies are drawn from both 'classical' global cities such as London and Paris, and also from large cosmopolitan metropolises - such as Bangalore, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, Singapore and Hong Kong – which all constitute, in their own terms, powerful sites within the informational, cultural and moral networked economies of contemporary globalization. The chapters explore some of the most pressing issues of our times: globalization and the role of global neo-liberal regimes; urban change and in particular the dramatic urbanization of Global South countries; and religious politics and religious revivalism associated, for instance, with transnational Islam or global Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity.

The National Shrine in Washington, DC has been deeply loved, blithely ignored, and passionately criticized. It has been praised as a "dazzling jewel" and dismissed as a "towering Byzantine beach ball." In this intriguing and inventive book, Thomas Tweed shows that the Shrine is also an illuminating site from which to tell the story of twentieth-century Catholicism. He organizes his narrative around six themes that characterize U.S. Catholicism, and he ties these themes to the Shrine's material culture--to images, artifacts, or devotional spaces. Thus he begins with the Basilica's foundation stone, weaving it into a discussion of "brick and mortar" Catholicism, the drive to build institutions. To highlight the Church's inclination to appeal to women, he looks at fund-raising for the Mary Memorial Altar, and he focuses on the Filipino oratory to Our Lady of Antipolo to illustrate the Church's outreach to immigrants. Throughout, he employs painstaking detective work to shine a light on the many facets of American Catholicism reflected in the shrine.