Documenting diversity

A New Religious America. By Diana L. Eck. HarperSanFrancisco, 404 pp., $27.00.

At the risk of sounding like a publicity blurb, I proclaim that Diana Eck's new book should be required reading for clergy, seminary students, religious professionals and government and business leaders. While many Americans are slowly waking up to our changing religious landscape, most will be stunned by Eck's well-documented declaration that "the United States has become the most religiously diverse nation on earth." Our religious diversity--spiritual, theological and civic--poses a host of urgent questions.

Contemporary debates with religious, moral and ethical dimensions are squarely before us: debates about stem cell research, faith-based initiatives, facilitating peace in the Middle East, posting the Ten Commandments in public schools and courtrooms, prayer in schools or at school-sponsored events and so on. An awareness of our religious diversity requires a broader, more inclusive approach to such questions. It will further complicate--and sometimes clarify--public-policy debates.