Religious Dimension of Political Behavior

The dramatic increase in religiously motivated political activity in the United States since the early 1980s has spawned an increased scholarly awareness of the relationship between religion and politics. The rise of such groups as the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and the Family Research Council attests to this growing intersection between politics and religion. Correspondingly, the amount of scholarly writing in this field has increased significantly. This volume compiles overviews of the existing research in religion and political behavior.

Designed as a research and reference tool, this work includes over four hundred annotated bibliographic entries for books and journal articles by political scientists and sociologists. These sources encompass a wide variety of aspects concerning the relationship between religion and political behavior. The entries provide information on the theoretical basis, methodology, and result of each study. Entries are indexed by author, subject, and title.

LAURA R. OLSON is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Clemson University. She is author of Filled with Spirit and Power: Protestant Clergy in Politics (forthcoming), and the co-author of Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture, and Strategic Choices (1999).

TED G. JELEN is Professor and Chair of Political Science at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. His recent books include The Political Mobilization of Religious Beliefs (Praeger, 1991) and The Political World of the Clergy (Praeger, 1993). He is also the editor of Religion and Political Behavior in the United States (Praeger, 1989), Perspectives on the Politics of Abortion (Praeger, 1995), and co-editor of Abortion Politics in the United States and Canada: Studies in Public Opinion (Praeger, 1994).