Routledge Handbook of Religion and American Culture

Chad E. Seales is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a B.A. from the University of Florida, an M.T.S. from Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research addresses the cultural relationship between religion and secularism in American life. He is the author of Religion Around Bono: Evangelical Enchantment and Neoliberal Capitalism (Penn State University Press, 2019), The Secular Spectacle: Performing Religion in a Southern Town (Oxford University Press, 2013), and has published articles on religion and food, industrial religion, corporate chaplaincy, religion and film, and secularism and secularization in the United States.

• Introduction PART 1: ENERGY 1. Sugar 2. Whaling 3. Fossil Fuels 4. Nuclear 5. Renewable PART 2: INDUSTRY 6. Banking 7. Manufacturing 8. Communications 9. Pharmaceuticals 10. Marketing PART 3: PUBLIC LIFE 11. Agriculture 12. Architecture 13. Home 14. Education 15. Workplace PART 4: MUSIC 16. Jazz 17. Gospel and Blues 18. Country 19. Hip Hop 20. Punk PART 5: ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT 21. Broadway 22. Fashion 23. Sports 24. Comedy 25. Television 26. Film PART 6: LIFE AND DEATH 27. Healthcare 28. Birthing 29. Adoption 30. Capital Punishment 31. Artificial Intelligence

“In this new contribution, Seales presents an impressive 31 essays from interested authors on the subject…each of which offers insights into how cultural religion has been constructed and performed in the United States taking up themes of caste, corporatism, and capitalism as well as themes of race, gender, class, sexuality, social movements, and organizational forms of control and resistance. Religion is understood here from a material and cultural perspective, shifting away from the focus on churches, denominations, or official religions, to examine how religion manifests itself in everyday cultural life…This volume is well structured and a welcome contribution to the study of religion regarding American culture.”- Michal Saidl, Masaryk University, Brno in Religious Studies Review, Vol. 51 No. 4 (Dec 2025)