{"id":967,"date":"2014-01-13T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T12:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html"},"modified":"2014-01-13T12:31:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T12:31:00","slug":"book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Religion and American Exceptionalism<\/i>\u00a0is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by\u00a0The Review of Faith & International Affairs<\/i>\u00a0(Summer 2012). In these articles, scholars and academic pundits discuss and elaborate on the concept of American exceptionalism \u2013 that is, a story aboutthe American way of life<\/i>\u00a0and a narrative which illustrates\u00a0who Americans are<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0where Americans come from<\/i>. In this book, in addition to tracing the history and discursive origins of American exceptionalism, the authors also illustrate how this exceptional worldview has affected contemporary U.S. politics and the practices of American foreign policy.<\/span><\/div>\n
The exceptionalist rhetoric of the United States as a \u2018city upon a hill,\u2019 according to Noll (ch. 2), can be traced to John Winthrop\u2019s speech in 1630, \u2018A Model of Christian Charity\u2019, in which the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony called for a Puritan vision of the world to be established in the new continent. Hoover (ch. 1) indicates that Alexis de Tocqueville\u2019s two-volume\u00a0Democracy in America<\/i>\u00a0(1835, 1840) is broadly cited when referring to the particular idea of American exceptionalism. Tocqueville\u2019s interpretation of the United States as an \u2018exception\u2019 which distinguished itself from other European countries (also understood as the Old World) is arguably the best known of all the \u2018foreign traveller\u2019 works about the American way of life. However, in contrast to the orthodox understanding of Winthrop\u2019s exceptional legacy, Seiple (ch. 3) argues that Roger Williams\u2019 colony of Rhode Island actually best exemplified the essence of American exceptionalism as evidenced by every citizen\u2019s liberty of conscience, given by God and protected and promoted by the state. Over the course of 27 years (from 1636 to 1663), Roger Williams established America\u2019s enduring exceptionalism from the \u2018bottom-up\u2019 (grassroots) to socialise the idea of religious freedom among citizens, and from the \u2018top-down\u2019 (government) to institutionalise that idea in the law (Ibid.: 13). Seiple argues that religious freedom<\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cis integral to an American experience that does not merely tolerate and assimilate different religious identities. It celebrates and integrates them while maintaining the essence of their identity and encouraging all to exercise that identity peaceably in the public square\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(p. 16)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seiple emphasises and asserts that religious freedom is particularly important when discussing the concept of American exceptionalism. In the United States, religious freedom should not be a bipartisan issue; rather, it should be a nonpartisan issue because pursuing such liberty is a permanent U.S. national interest.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Religion and American Exceptionalism\u00a0is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by\u00a0The Review of Faith & International Affairs\u00a0(Summer 2012). In these articles, scholars and academic pundits discuss and elaborate on the concept of American exceptionalism \u2013 that is, a story aboutthe American way of life\u00a0and a narrative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBook Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Religion and American Exceptionalism is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Religion and American Exceptionalism is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-13T12:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html\",\"name\":\"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-13T12:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-13T12:31:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\"},\"description\":\"Religion and American Exceptionalism is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\",\"name\":\"Guest Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism","description":"Religion and American Exceptionalism is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism","og_description":"Religion and American Exceptionalism is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2014-01-13T12:31:00+00:00","author":"Guest Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Contributor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html","name":"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-13T12:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-13T12:31:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2"},"description":"Religion and American Exceptionalism is an edited volume which collects a set of insightful articles from a special issue published by The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/01\/book-review-religion-and-american-exceptionalism.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book Review: Religion and American Exceptionalism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2","name":"Guest Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}