This edition includes ten articles that have appeared since the publication of the first edition in 1995. Three are in the area of gender, two concern Native Americans, two consider new immigrants while others advance the study of African-Americans, popular culture and the sociology of religion.

Religion and American Culture challenges the religion's traditional emphasis on older European, American, male, middle-class, Protestant, northeastern narratives concerned primarily with churches and theology. Breaking through the field with multicultural tales of Native American, African Americans and other groups that cut across boundaries of gender, class, religion and region, David Hackett's anthology offers an illuminating and comprehensive overview of the most exciting work currently underway in this field.

"For the first edition, David Hackett compiled a set of wonderful essays that displayed some of the newer scholarly initiatives in studying religion in American culture while also delineating its shape as a field of inquiry. The new edition selectively adjusts the set so as at once to refine the emphases and enhance the overall utility of the collection. Religion and American Culture will excel as a stimulating introduction to the field for beginning students while also serving to help those who are more advanced as they develop their specializations." -- John F. Wilson, Princeton University