American Liturgy: Finding Theological Meaning in the Holy Days of Us Culture - Hardcover

by James Calvin Davis (Author)

How can celebrating the "holy days" of American culture help us to understand what it means to be both Christian and American? In timely essays on Super Bowl Sunday, Mother's Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and other holidays of the secular calendar, James Calvin Davis explores the wisdom that Christian tradition brings to our sense of American identity, as well as the ways in which American culture might prompt us to discern the imperatives of faith in new ways. Rather than demonizing culture or naively baptizing it, Davis models a bidirectional mode of reflection, where faith convictions and cultural values converse with and critique one another. Focusing on topics like politics, race, parenting, music, and sports, these essays remind us that culture is as much human accomplishment and gift as it is a challenge to Christian values, and there is insight to be discovered in a theologically astute investment in America's "holy days."

Author Biography

James Calvin Davis is the George Adams Ellis Professor of Liberal Arts and Religion at Middlebury College in Vermont. Among his other books are In Defense of Civility: How Religion Can Unite America on Seven Moral Issues That Divide Us (2010) and Forbearance: A Theological Ethic for a Disagreeable Church (2017).