One of the most substantial divides in American politics is the “God gap.” Religious voters tend to identify with and support the Republican Party, while secular voters generally support the Democratic Party. Conventional wisdom suggests that religious differences between Republicans and Democrats have produced this gap, with voters sorting themselves into the party that best represents their religious views. Michele F. Margolis offers a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom, arguing that the relationship between religion and politics is far from a one-way street that starts in the church and ends at the ballot box. Margolis contends that political identity has a profound effect on social identity, including religion. Whether a person chooses to identify as religious and the extent of their involvement in a religious community are, in part, a response to political surroundings. In today’s climate of political polarization, partisan actors also help reinforce the relationship between religion and politics, as Democratic and Republican elites stake out divergent positions on moral issues and use religious faith to varying degrees when reaching out to voters.

Since the founding, American evangelicals have espoused a civil religion that sees limited government as a condition for a thriving church. This "republican theology," however, also accentuates the church's capacity to elevate civic virtue. How evangelicals navigate these sometimes contradictory imperatives forms the subtext of their participation in American politics.

Roman religion as we know it is largely the product of the middle and late republic, the period falling roughly between the victory of Rome over its Latin allies in 338 B.C.E. and the attempt of the Italian peoples in the Social War to stop Roman domination, resulting in the victory of Rome over all of Italy in 89 B.C.E. This period witnessed the expansion and elaboration of large public rituals such as the games and the triumph as well as significant changes to Roman intellectual life, including the emergence of new media like the written calendar and new genres such as law, antiquarian writing, and philosophical discourse. In Religion in Republican Rome Jörg Rüpke argues that religious change in the period is best understood as a process of rationalization: rules and principles were abstracted from practice, then made the object of a specialized discourse with its own rules of argument and institutional loci. Thus codified and elaborated, these then guided future conduct and elaboration. Rüpke concentrates on figures both famous and less well known, including Gnaeus Flavius, Ennius, Accius, Varro, Cicero, and Julius Caesar. He contextualizes the development of rational argument about religion and antiquarian systematization of religious practices with respect to two complex processes: Roman expansion in its manifold dimensions on the one hand and cultural exchange between Greece and Rome on the other.

This book explores how recent findings and research provide a richer understanding of religious activities in Republican Rome and contemporary central Italic societies, including the Etruscans, during the period of the Middle and Late Republic. While much recent research has focused on the Romanization of areas outside Italy in later periods, this volume investigates religious aspects of the Romanization of the Italian peninsula itself. The essays strive to integrate literary evidence with archaeological and epigraphic material as they consider the nexus of religion and politics in early Italy; the impact of Roman institutions and practices on Italic society; the reciprocal impact of non-Roman practices and institutions on Roman custom; and the nature of 'Roman', as opposed to 'Latin', 'Italic', or 'Etruscan', religion in the period in question. The resulting volume illuminates many facets of religious praxis in Republican Italy, while at the same time complicating the categories we use to discuss it.

The way most people think about religion and politics is only loosely linked to empirical reality, argues Ryan P. Burge. In 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America, Burge strives to be an impartial referee and to overcome these caustic misperceptions by using both rigorous data analysis and straightforward explanations.

The complete guide to debunking right-wing misinterpretations of the Bible—from economics and immigration to gender and sexuality. Jesus loves borders, guns, unborn babies, and economic prosperity and hates homosexuality, taxes, welfare, and universal healthcare—or so say many Republican politicians, pundits, and preachers. Through outrageous misreadings of the New Testament gospels that started almost a century ago, conservative influencers have conjured a version of Jesus that speaks to their fears, desires, and resentments. In Republican Jesus, Tony Keddie explains not only where this right-wing Christ came from and what he stands for but also why this version of Jesus is a fraud. By restoring Republicans’ cherry-picked gospel texts to their original literary and historical contexts, Keddie dismantles the biblical basis for Republican positions on hot-button issues like Big Government, taxation, abortion, immigration, and climate change. At the same time, he introduces readers to an ancient Jesus whose life experiences and ethics were totally unlike those of modern Americans, conservatives and liberals alike.

A new breed of evangelicals, with a fiery passion for economic justice, racial reconciliation and a care for the environment, has abandoned the religious right. Harper, a rising star in this movement, describes the roots of this political shift, the agents of change driving it and the extent of the evangelical rejection of the right-wing political agenda. Here, Harper offers a powerful indictment of the religious right demonstrating how it has abandoned the gospel in its racist and sexist core beliefs.

In God's Own Party, Daniel K. Williams presents the first comprehensive history of the Christian Right, uncovering how evangelicals came to see the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could reclaim America as a Christian nation.

New York Times–bestselling author John Danforth, an ordained Episcopal priest and former US senator, is uniquely qualified to write about one of the most contentious issues in America: the intersection of government and religion. In Faith and Politics, he explores the widening rift between left and right, conservative and liberal, believer and nonbeliever. Danforth takes on many of the polarizing hot-button issues, including stem-cell research, abortion, school prayer, and gay marriage, and addresses how we can approach them with less rancor. Arguing that voters must call for our leaders to turn away from wedge-issue politics and work on our country’s pressing problems, Danforth’s book is a much-needed clarion call to all Americans. “A lucid, powerful book that is at once reflective and instructive.”—Jon Meacham, former editor of Newsweek “[A] meditation about the contested terrain where politics and religion intersect.”—George F. Will “Danforth calls for a radical change in how his party operates.”—The Christian Science Monitor “This book and its author are a modern-day profile in courage.”—David Gergen “Danforth’s thoughtfulness, deep wisdom, and simple decency radiate from every page, and leave one at the end with rare hope that through commitment, faith and politics can ultimately enrich, not corrupt, one another.”—Harold Hongju Koh, dean of Yale Law School