"The United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world," leading religious scholar Diana Eck writes in this eye-opening guide to the religious realities of America today. The Immigration Act of 1965 eliminated the quotas linking immigration to national origins. Since then, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Jams, Zoroastrians, and new varieties of Jews and Catholics have arrived from every part of the globe, radically altering the religious landscape of the United States. Members of the world's religions live not just on the other side of the world but in our neighborhoods; Hindu children go to school with Jewish children; Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs work side-by-side with Protestants and Catholics.
This new religious diversity is now a Main Street phenomenon, yet many Americans remain unaware of the profound change taking place at every level of our society, from local school boards to Congress, and in small-town Nebraska as well as New York City. Islamic centers and mosques, Hindu and Buddhist temples, and meditation centers can be found in virtually every major American metropolitan area. There are Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in Salt Lake City, Utah; Toledo, Ohio; and Jackson, Mississippi. Buddhism has become an American religion, as communities widely separated in Asia are now neighbors in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago. Eck discovers Muslims worshiping in a U-Haul dealership in Pawtucket, Rhode Island; a gymnasium in Oklahoma City; and a former mattress showroom in Northridge, California. Hindu temples are housed in a warehouse in Queens, a former YMCA in New Jersey, and a former Methodist church in Minneapolis.
How Americans of all faiths and beliefs can engage with one another to shape a positive pluralism is one of the essential questions -- perhaps the most important facing American society. While race has been the dominant American social issue in the past century, religious diversity in our civil and neighborly lives is emerging, mostly unseen, as the great challenge of the twenty-first century. Diana Eck brilliantly analyzes these developments in the richest and most readable investigation of American society since Robert Bellah's classic, The Habits of the Heart. What Eck gives us in A New Religious America is a portrait of the diversity of religion in modern America, complete with engaging characters, fascinating stories, the tragedy of misunderstanding and hatred, and the hope of new friendships, offering a road map to guide us all in the richly diverse America of the twenty-first century.
An eye-opening Account of the changing Landscape of America
<li>The 1990s saw the U.S. Navy commission its first Muslim chaplain and open its first mosque.</li>
<li>There are presently more than three hundred temples in Los Angeles, home to the greatest variety of Buddhists in the world.</li>
<li>There are more American Muslims than there are American Episcopalians, Jews, or Presbyterians.</li>

A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation

History

Eck, Diana L.

Historical Study & Educational Resources

HarperOne

Why Understanding America's Religious Landscape Is the Most Important Challenge Facing Us Today <ul>
<li>The 1990s saw the U.S. Navy commission its first Muslim chaplain and open its first mosque.</li>
<li>There are presently more than three hundred temples in Los Angeles, home to the greatest variety of Buddhists in the world.</li>
<li>There are more American Muslims than there are American Episcopalians, Jews, or Presbyterians.</li>
</ul>

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

HarperSanFrancisco

A luminous work, as befits this City of Light. I know of few books that capture the soul of a sacred city to the degree that this one does'-Huston Smith, Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion, Syracuse University One of the oldest living cities in the world, Banaras is also where Shiva, the Lord of All, is believed to have made his home since the dawn of creation. There are few places in India as traditionally Hindu and as symbolic of the whole of Hindu culture as this city where God is imagined and imaged in a thousand ways. Through her account of the history, geography and art of the city, its elaborate and thriving rituals, its myths and literature, Diana Eck brings out the significance Banaras holds for the millions of pilgrims and seekers who have been coming here for over 2500 years.

Banaras: City Of Light

Children's Books

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE INDIA PVT.LTD.

Combining text, video, graphics and music, this CD-ROM maps the diverse culture of faith in America. From a Hindu temple near Boston to the nation's oldest Islamic center in Iowa, it surveys Christian, Jewish, Jain, Sikh, Buddist, Islamic, Zoroastrian, African-American, and Pagan communities.

On Common Ground: World Religions in America

Reference

Columbia Univ. Pr.

In India: A Sacred Geography, renowned Harvard scholar Diana Eck offers an extraordinary spiritual journey through the pilgrimage places of the world's most religiously vibrant culture and reveals that it is, in fact, through these sacred pilgrimages that India’s very sense of nation has emerged. No matter where one goes in India, one will find a landscape in which mountains, rivers, forests, and villages are elaborately linked to the stories of the gods and heroes of Indian culture. Every place in this vast landscape has its story, and conversely, every story of Hindu myth and legend has its place. Likewise, these places are inextricably tied to one another—not simply in the past, but in the present—through the local, regional, and transregional practices of pilgrimage. India: A Sacred Geography tells the story of the pilgrim’s India. In these pages, Diana Eck takes the reader on an extraordinary spiritual journey through the living landscape of this fascinating country –its mountains, rivers, and seacoasts, its ancient and powerful temples and shrines. Seeking to fully understand the sacred places of pilgrimage from the ground up, with their stories, connections and layers of meaning, she acutely examines Hindu religious ideas and narratives and shows how they have been deeply inscribed in the land itself. Ultimately, Eck shows us that from these networks of pilgrimage places, India’s very sense of region and nation has emerged. This is the astonishing and fascinating picture of a land linked for centuries not by the power of kings and governments, but by the footsteps of pilgrims. India: A Sacred Geography offers a unique perspective on India, both as a complex religious culture and as a nation. Based on her extensive knowledge and her many decades of wide-ranging travel and research, Eck's piercing insights and a sweeping grasp of history ensure that this work will be in demand for many years to come.

India: A Sacred Geography

Harmony

A spiritual history of the world's most religiously complex and diverse society, from one of Harvard's most respected scholars. India: A Sacred Geography is the culmination of more than a decade's work from the renowned Harvard scholar Diana L. Eck. The book explores the sacred places of India, taking the reader on an extraordinary trip through the beliefs and history of this rich and profound place, as well as providing a basic introduction to Hindu religious ideas and how those ideas influence our understanding of the modern sense of "India" as a nation.

Asia

Banaras: City of Light

Describes the ancient city of Varanasi, also known as Banaras or Benares, and discusses Hindu beliefs concerning the city and the river it was built upon, the Ganges

Religion & Spirituality

Alfred.A. Knopf

The description for this book, Banaras: City of Light, will be forthcoming.

Princeton University Press

Banaras, City of Light (

Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd

Religion scholar Diana Eck is director of the Pluralism Project, which seeks to map the new religious diversity of the United States, particularly the increasing presence of Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim communities. In this tenth-anniversary edition of Encountering God, Eck shows why dialogue with people of other faiths remains crucial in today's interdependent world--globally, nationally, and even locally. She reveals how her own encounters with other religions have shaped and enlarged her Christian faith toward a bold new Christian pluralism

Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Beacon Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eck, Diana L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Eck, Diana L.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eck, Diana L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation

A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation

Banaras: City Of Light

On Common Ground: World Religions in America

India: A Sacred Geography

India: A Sacred Geography

Banaras: City of Light

Banaras: City of Light

Banaras, City of Light (

Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras