In Boundless Faith, the first book to look systematically at American Christianity in relation to globalization, Robert Wuthnow shows that American Christianity is increasingly influenced by globalization and is, in turn, playing a larger role in other countries and in U.S. policies and programs abroad. These changes, he argues, can be seen in the growth of support at home for missionaries and churches in other countries and in the large number of Americans who participate in short-term volunteer efforts abroad. These outreaches include building orphanages, starting microbusinesses, and setting up computer networks. Drawing on a comprehensive survey that was conducted for this book, as well as several hundred in-depth interviews with church leaders, Wuthnow refutes several prevailing stereotypes: that U.S. churches have turned away from the global church and overseas missions, that congregations only look inward, and that the growing voice of religion in areas of foreign policy is primarily evangelical. This fresh and revealing book encourages Americans to pay attention to the grass-roots mechanisms by which global ties are created and sustained.
Robert Wuthnow is the Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. His many books include After Heaven: Spirituality in America since the 1950s, All in Sync: How Music and Art Are Revitalizing American Religion, and Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist, all from UC Press. With John H. Evans, he coedited The Quiet Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and the Public Role of Mainline Protestantism, also from UC Press.
"An important and timely work. Wuthnow compiles material and offers an interpretation that is not only more encompassing than any existing work, but is also very insightful and thought provoking, and pulls the reader into the globally extended world of faith and community."—Wade Clark Roof, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Boundless Faith is indispensable, breaking new ground as the only systematic look at American religions' effect on governmental foreign policy. This is an invaluable study of superior scholarship."—John Coleman, Loyola Marymount University
360 pp.6 x 9Illus: 3 tables
9780520268081$24.95|£21.00Paper
Oct 2010