In Religion and Congress: The Intersection of Faith and Politics, editors David A. Dulio and Colton C. Campbell have assembled a volume that examines the role of religion on Capitol Hill from a variety of perspectives. Although this collection of essays is eclectic, some structure is imposed by parceling the book into three substantive sections focused on the history of religion in Congress; political and policy implications; and religious expression and association on the Hill. The American politics literature on religion has a large focus on mass behavior, and therefore turning the vantage toward the perspectives and actions of officeholders is a welcome pivot in need of greater examination. This volume is to be commended for such an endeavor, but what is arguably deficient is a clear rationale for what topics get covered, and why, in this diverse assemblage of studies. In short, the absence of a clearly stated thematic approach means the chapters in this book sometimes loosely hang together.

After the editors offer an introduction that summarizes the contributions of the ensuing chapters—while also impressing upon the reader the significance of religion in the halls of Congress dating back to the nation’s founding—the next three chapters comprise Part 1: Historical Foundations. Nicholas G. DiPucchio provides an insightful discussion of the founders’ disagreements regarding the role of religion in the public sphere. He offers a nuanced account of the conflicted positions the founders harbored with respect to the extent to which religion involves itself in politics.

The next two chapters in Part 1, by Matthew A. Wasniewski and then Daniel S. Holt, provide detailed accounts of the House chaplaincy and the Senate chaplaincy, respectively. Perhaps no other aspect of the intersection of church and state is as institutionalized as congressional chaplains. In these respective chapters, one wonders if they could have been merged into a single essay because of the close overlap in the institutional development of the chaplaincy in both congressional chambers. Nevertheless, the authors do an excellent job chronicling this religious role in Congress, particularly the long history of chaplains going back to America’s ties to Britain, the longstanding conflicts and disagreements over employing chaplains, and how these chaplaincies have closely mirrored the institutionalization of Congress with regard to the position becoming valued as a career rather than as a part-time endeavor. Yet whereas our contemporary members of Congress are now highly polarized by party and ideology, contemporary chaplains have generally removed themselves from being seen as political and partisan.

The bulk of the book, consisting of five chapters, is found in Part 2: Religion, Politics, and Policy. These contributions appear the most disjointed in terms of relating to one another, but viewed in isolation, they are each illuminating. Thomas J. Carty and Julianna J. Thomson present a case study of two of the most influential Democratic senators serving in the final decades of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first: Joe Biden (DE) and Ted Kennedy (MA). The authors focus on how both senators began their congressional careers as pro-life Catholics who shifted in favor of the pro-choice position, notably as the Democratic Senate Caucus did so after the 1980 election of the Republican President Ronald Reagan. Kennedy was quicker to make this transition, which the authors attribute to his fellow Catholic officeholders from Massachusetts in Congress who embraced the pro-choice stance after Roe v. Wade (1973). Biden was slower to fully adopt the Democratic Party’s pro-choice view, and he did not endorse federal funding for abortions until his successful presidential run in 2020. The changing positions of Senators Kennedy and Biden align with Congress’ own partisan polarization over abortion, but the chapter could have provided some background on how Republicans forced this reaction from Democrats, with Reagan leading the way, as useful political and historical context.

The next chapter by James L. Guth traces long-term alterations in congresspersons’ religious affiliation and how it has diverged among Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Guth has compiled an impressive dataset showing marked changes in representatives’ religious identity according to party by tracing four congresses separated by about two decades apiece (starting with the 83rd: 1953–1955). The starkest shift is found in the 112th Congress (2011–2013), as the infusion of Tea Party Republicans moves the House GOP Conference in a more evangelical direction. This greatly expands the so-called “God gap” vis-à-vis the more secular House Democrats. This religious divide between the parties in the House has only grown since then, and it is most palpable among the far-right and far-left, as displayed by the religiosity of the GOP’s House Freedom Caucus members versus growing numbers of the nonreligious among the Democrats’ Progressive Caucus.

The chapter by Nicole Asmussen Mathew marshals empirical evidence from 2017 to 2021 to determine whether Republican House representatives and senators identifying as evangelical Christians were in fact more loyal to President Trump, as reflected in their legislative voting records. She also looks at some key congressional votes in the wake of the Jan. 6th Capitol insurrection. Overall, district and state presidential election returns and political ideology are typically better metrics of congressional loyalty to Trump, but there is some support for the claim that evangelical members were slightly more faithful to Trump after January 6. Yet the chapter finds that fealty to this president is still better explained by the share of evangelical constituents that members of Congress represent, as opposed to whether they themselves self-identify as evangelicals.

The focus then turns to the role of religious lobbying in Congress in a chapter by Anne Marie Cammisa. This essay provides a series of case studies on the congressional involvement of religious pressure groups, starting with the abolitionist and temperance movements and then moving to more modern instances of lobbying by Catholic bishops on welfare reform (1990s) and healthcare (the 2010 Affordable Care Act). The chapter closes by looking at multiple religious actors involved in influencing environmental policy. Throughout, the author emphasizes that religious groups are hardly distinguishable from other lobbyists in terms of their tactics and approaches to influencing congressional policymaking.

In the final chapter of Part 2, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd has us consider the narrowness in which American foreign policy defines religion. There are often unclear boundaries between the religious and the secular, and because many societies mix the two rather seamlessly, American intervention under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) has led to muddled responses abroad. Through case studies looking at American involvement in Africa, Latina America, and a post-Soviet Union nation, Shakman Hurd shows that the IRFA’s limited conception of religious identity and practices leaves many citizens vulnerable to domestic state action that is in fact harmful and discriminatory on religious grounds.

Part 3: Religion and Life on the Hill returns us to the House chaplaincy. But in this case, Jacob R. Straus and Jared C. Nagel evaluate the frequent presence of guest chaplains, whose purpose is mainly limited to offering the opening prayer for a daily session of Congress. Between 2000 and 2023, guest chaplains conducted over a third of these daily prayers, and unsurprisingly, House members sought to have clergy from their district perform this ritual. Over the years, as the nation has become more religiously diverse, this has manifested in a wider variety of religious faiths and demographic backgrounds among the guest chaplains.

In the penultimate chapter, Gregory C. McCarthy delves into the bipartisan prayer and Bible study groups that a small number (usually under thirty members) of representatives and senators participate in. It is notable that just as the House is known for being more polarizing, there appears more comity and less grandstanding in the Senate version of these religious extracurricular groups. Likewise, in a reflection of the God gap, Republican congresspersons tend to make up a higher share of participants (especially in the House). Despite the unifying nature of these religious gatherings, the author argues that they have no impact on lowering the partisan rancor in either congressional chamber. (Perhaps because there are so few attendees.)

The final part of the book serves as the editors’ concluding chapter, which briefly restates the importance of studying how religion shapes Congressional practice and life on the Hill. Religion and Congress is not the sort of work a scholar would turn to for in-depth analytical rigor of a narrow set of questions. However, if a reader’s objective is to learn more about religion and politics in Congress and the members who serve in this institution, the detailed historical approach deployed by most contributors in this volume will certainly leave the reader with a better understanding of the complicated intersection of faith and legislative behavior.