What role does religion play in contemporary U.S. politics and culture and what role is it likely to play in the years to come? These questions shape David Gutterman and Andrew Murphy's book, Political Religion and Religious Politics: Navigating Identities in the United States. Their answer responds to competing claims regarding the impact of religion on contemporary public life, with some extolling the stability of religious pluralism and the ability of the U.S. to incorporate and assimilate minority religious traditions and others lamenting the abandonment of the nation's Judeo-Christian heritage. The reality, Gutterman and Murphy argue, is more nuanced, with religious beliefs shaping and guiding both individual and collective political behavior, leading to their prediction of a future characterized by volatility and conflict.

The contemporary political landscape the authors describe is a struggle between religious minimalism, loosely described as the desire for strict separation between faith and public life, and religious maximalism, or the belief religious faith should permeate all aspects of life. A multitude of other factors, notably race, class, gender, and national origin, shape the tension between religious minimalism and maximalism. Gutterman and Murphy explore this tension through four case studies, each examining a different aspect of the interplay between religious and political identities. Missing is an explanation of the selection process for these cases and whether they are broadly representative of the types of political debates where religious identity matters.

The first two case studies explore instances of religiously grounded responses to social and political controversies: opposition to Park51 (the Ground Zero Mosque) and to the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In both cases, the authors label the conservative religious opponents as religious maximalists and both cases represent a tension between what the authors describe as religious “insiders” and “outsiders.” However, the cases also reveal several notable differences. Opposition to Park51 was driven by high profile individuals (such as Pastor Terry Jones and Charles Krauthammer), while opposition to the ACA was nurtured through, what Gutterman and Murphy term, the Orthodox Alliance, a loose coalition of Catholics, Jews, Evangelical Christians, and Mormons. Park51 pitted “insider” conservative Christians against “outsider” Muslims, while in opposition to the ACA, conservative Christians figure as the “outsiders.” This re-categorization calls for greater explanation. Gutterman and Murphy argue that these controversies demonstrate the limitations of the narratives of pluralism and religious tolerance. Park51 illustrates the inability of Muslims to become religious insiders despite following the assimilation path of other religious minorities. The ACA case examines which groups can legitimately make claims of religious liberty and the activities or behaviors to which those claims apply.

The second two case studies, exploring the rise of the “prosperity gospel” and the growing number of Religious independents, focus explicitly on how emerging religious trends push Americans toward individual rather than collective action. Despite nominal religious pluralism, Gutterman and Murphy argue that “there is something deeply homogenizing in the religious experience of American religious diversity” (6). The homogenization to which they point is a distinctly American framework emphasizing individualism and suspicion of authority and hierarchy. The prosperity gospel, which the authors term neoliberalization theology, emphasizes individualism and views market success as a sign of divine favor. The authors describe the prosperity gospel as a “Christianized version of the American Dream of capitalism and upward mobility” (89). They note that among African Americans neoliberalization theology threatens to replace the collective action focus of the black church with an emphasis on individualism. The authors argue abandonment of organized religion — what many scholars have termed the rise of the “nones” — reflects a similar trend toward individualism. In both of these cases, Gutterman and Murphy explore how other markers of identity — race, class, and gender, in particular — intersect with religious belief to shape the nature of identity politics.

The book makes three noteworthy contributions to the literature. First, Gutterman and Murphy make a compelling case for giving weight to religious identity as a form of identity politics. The identity politics literature often ignores religion, but the authors convincingly argue that “religion deserves a place alongside race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, ethnicity, and other markers of identity in the United States” (9). In particular, the book offers theoretical leverage for understanding both traditional religious/political conservativism and the growing trend of religious libertarianism. One unanswered question is why religion matters to some religious people but not to others in the context of these debates.

Second, Gutterman and Murphy compel readers to consider how religious identity affects and is affected by other markers of identity in the context of contemporary political debates. Scholars building on their work would do well to emulate the nuanced intersectional analysis provided in each of their case studies.

Third, Gutterman and Murphy offer a constructive approach to understanding and analyzing religious independents. Taking issue with the label “nones,” they note religious independents are not always hostile to religion or without religious or spiritual beliefs; many are simply uninterested in religion or unaffiliated with a religious tradition. Their approach, analogizing the “nones” to political independents — without a party rather than without an interest — offers a useful reminder to scholars of religion and political commentators.

The case studies are nuanced and thought-provoking and, coupled with Gutterman and Murphy's argument, illustrate the complexity of religious identity in contemporary U.S. politics. In sum, Political Religion and Religious Politics lays a strong foundation for further exploration, analysis, and empirical testing of the conditions under which religion matters for shaping identity.