Religion and Democracy in the United States: Danger or Opportunity?, ed. Alan Wolfe & Ira Katznelson (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010)

When I began my search for a book I used the library catalogue and looked up “Christianity” and “politics”. Since I was brought up as a Christian and more specifically catholic, I wanted to get a better understanding of the religious group that I associate with. Also as a Government and Law major and just from watching the news I knew that politics and Christianity in America is a very big issue. The book that I found to be most interesting and relevant was Religion and Democracy in the United States: Danger or Opportunity? The book was published in 2010 so it is fairly recent and is relevant to issues that are presently ongoing.

With a picture of both a Bible and the Declaration of Independence on the cover it highlights on of the many issues that religion and specifically Christianity has faced in the United States and that is separation of church and state. While looking through the book I saw some other interesting topics which may help me in writing my paper. One of these topics was about how religion can affect how a person will vote. Certain religious beliefs have lined up with different political groups. This can been seen in people who feel very strongly making abortions illegal. Many of these people feel this way due to their religious beliefs, which then sets them up to become a supporter of the Republican Party. Although there is a separation of church and state, religion plays a very large role in shaping American politics and democracy.

What I like about the book is that it contains many different authors and editors. Many different people write each section and chapter, which gives a range of viewpoints and opinions on the issue. It is also broken down into many sections that allows for the reader to focus in on the specific topic that they want to research. I will most likely find a way to use this book when I begin research on the upcoming paper.

Sugirtharajah, Sharada. Imagining Hinduism: A postcolonial Perspective. New York: Routledge, 2003.

To start off my search I used the library catalogue and simply searched Hinduism. I was not sure which direction I wanted to go in but I knew that Hinduism was the religion that I wanted to study. When I saw the title Imagining Hinduism: A Postcolonial Perspective I immediately knew that this was the book for me. A postcolonial take on Hinduism stuck out as a very interesting way to learn about Hinduism.

When I saw the book, the beautiful cover art really stood out. Also the fact that the book was red didn’t hurt since that is my favorite color ☺. One of the chapters that stood out to me was William Ward’s “Virtuous Christians, vicious Hindus”. I was not expecting to see a title like this in a book that is about Hinduism. I was also impressed by the bibliography at the end of the book. This could be very useful when searching for other helpful books about Hinduism for my paper. This book would probably be helpful in writing my paper. I certainly would be able to get some great ideas from it that would be able to help me with further research.

There were a lot of books about Hinduism around where I found this book. All that I know could be very useful for me. I now know exactly where to look when I begin my research. I still don’t know which direction I will take my paper in, but I am a lot more confident in my ability to find sources now that I have done this exercise.