Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide
UC Berkeley
Ruth Braunstein, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut
In the wake of the Great Recession and amid rising discontent with government responsiveness to ordinary citizens, Braunstein followed participants in two very different groups—a progressive faith-based community organization and a conservative Tea Party group—as they set out to become active and informed citizens, put their faith into action, and hold government accountable. Both groups viewed themselves as the latest in a long line of prophetic voices and patriotic heroes who were carrying forward the promise of the American democratic project. Both groups also shared the contention that religion (and God) are necessary to the functioning of American society. Yet in the course of their efforts, participants in the two groups engaged in different kinds of religious and civil religious practices, emphasized different religious values, and valued different ways of engaging with religious others. In short, they had very different styles of putting their faith into action, which reflected different understandings of American democracy and citizenship.
Books will be available for sale and signing.
This event will be held at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, 2538 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA.
Ruth Braunstein is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut and a cultural sociologist focused on the role of religion in American political life. Her research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Contexts, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Religion, and Qualitative Sociology, among other outlets. She is the author of Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide (University of California Press), a comparative ethnographic study of progressive faith-based community organizing and Tea Party activism, and co-editor of Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories About Faith and Politics (NYU Press).
Sponsored by the Center for Ethnographic Research. Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, and the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology.