American Religious Cultures – serie

This encyclopedia offers the most comprehensive presentation available on the diversity and richness of religious practices among African Americans, from traditions predating the era of the transatlantic slave trade to contemporary religious movements.Like no previous reference, African American Religious Cultures captures the full scope of African American religious identity, tracing the long history of African American engagement with spiritual practice while exploring the origins and complexities of current religious traditions.This breakthrough encyclopedia offers alphabetically organized entries on every major spiritual belief system as it has evolved among African American communities, covering its beginnings, development, major doctrinal points, rituals, important figures, and defining moments. In addition, the work illustrates how the social and economic realities of life for African Americans have shaped beliefs across the spectrum of religious cultures.

This encyclopedia is the first comprehensive survey of Hispanic American religiosity, contextualizing the roles of Latino and Latina Americans within U.S. religious culture.Spanning two volumes, Hispanic American Religious Cultures encompasses the full diversity of faiths and spiritual beliefs practiced among Hispanic Americans. It is the first comprehensive work to provide historic contexts for the many religious identities expressed among Hispanic Americans.The entries of this encyclopedia cover a range of spiritual affiliations, including Christian religious expressions, world faiths, and indigenous practices. Coverage includes historical development, current practices, and key individuals, while additional essays look at issues across various traditions. By examining the distinctive Hispanic interpretations of religious traditions, Hispanic American Religious Cultures explores the history of Latino and Latina Americans and the impact of living in the United States on their culture.

A resource ideal for students as well as general readers, this two-volume encyclopedia examines the diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander spiritual experience.Despite constituting a fairly small proportion of the U.S. population—roughly 5 percent—Asian Americans are a widely diverse group with equally heterogeneous religious beliefs and traditions. This encyclopedia provides a single source for authoritative information on the Asian American and Pacific Islander religious experience, addressing South Asian Americans, such as Indian Americans and Pakistani Americans; East Asian Americans, including Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Korean Americans; and Southeast Asian Americans, whose ethnicities include Filipino Americans, Thai Americans, and Vietnamese Americans. Pacific Islanders include Hawaiians, Samoans, Marshallese, Tongan, and Chamorro. The coverage includes not only traditional eastern belief systems and traditions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism as well as Micronesian and Polynesian religious traditions in the United States, but also the culture and religious rituals of Asian American Christians.