Dr. Charles Lippy and Dr. David Carrithers: Outstanding Authors
Dr. Charles Lippy’s book,
Pluralism comes of age: American religious culture in the twentieth
century was named one of the "Outstanding Academic Titles
(OAT) of 2001" by the editor and publisher of Choice
Magazine, published by the Association of College and Research Libraries,
a division of the American Library Association. Lippy is the Martin Distinguished
Professor of Religion and Philosophy at UTC.
Titles for Choice’s 38th Annual OAT list are
selected for their excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance
of their contribution to the field, and for their value as important treatment
of a specific subject. Titles on the list were selected from approximately
6,6oo, and they represent less than10% of the titles reviewed by Choice
in 2001. Over 23,000 titles were submitted to Choice during 2001.
Lippy’s book, available in paperback and hardback formats, examines
the historical roots of religious pluralism that he says helped create
the idea that the United States was home to a Protestant, Catholic and
Jewish religious structure, with many choices for Protestants.
" I also look at diversity in African-American religious life, where
religious institutions have long had both secular as well as sacred functions,
and the ways Native American tribal religions have interacted with and
have been changed by contact with Christianity," Lippy said.
Lippy discusses the "new pluralism," defined as a tremendous
increase in interest in religious traditions such as Islam, Hinduism,
and Buddhism in the United States. This discussion also covers the significance
of the "privatization" of spirituality. Lippy talks about Baby
Boomers’ apparent separation of spirituality from religion, leading
to what he says is true pluralism: an almost idiosyncratic religiosity
for everyone. Another topic covered in the book probes how laws and the
courts have responded to this increased diversity and pluralism.
Dr. David W. Carrithers, Adolph S. Ochs
Professor of Government and Head Department of Political Science recently
finished another volume of essays on the political and social thought
of Montesquieu. It will be published by the Voltaire Roundaton in Oxford,
England in 2002 and is entitled Montesquieu and the Spirit of Modernity.
Carrithers has also written the book Montesquieu’s Science of
Politics: Essays on The Spirit of Laws, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Inc.