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This is a huge subject, far too much for one column, and we'll be returning to it periodically. But two new books in this burgeoning literature offer a good starting point. The first is New York Glory: Religion in the City, edited by Tony Carnes and Anna Karpathakis, with an excellent introduction by Richard John Neuhaus. Carnes directs the Seminar on Contents and Methods in the Social Sciences at Columbia University, the International Institute on Values Changes, and the Research Institute for New Americans; his name will be familiar to readers of Christianity Today's news department, to which he frequentlycontributes. Karpathakis is assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY. Together they have assembled a collection of essays that conveys something of the vibrant presence of religion in the city, at once exhilarating and disorienting in its wild profusion—much like the city itself. "In sum," Carnes writes in his overview, "the magnitude of religion's impact on New York City's social and cultural life has been underappreciated." With this book at hand, there's no excuse for such neglect to continue.

Much broader in scope, and aimed at a general audience, is Diana Eck's A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation(HarperSanFrancisco). Although it is significantly flawed, not least because it consistently understates the predominantly Christian character of the new immigration (more on this in a future column), Eck's book is must reading. Her portrait of the new American religious landscape is based on extensive travels around the country. As the director of the Harvard-based Pluralism Project, she is walking encyclopedia on the subject of religious diversity.

On this matter it's all too easy to slip into cliches and feel-good babble—a temptation Eck doesn't always resist. But by drawing our attention in particular to American Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims, setting them in the context of an even more various multireligious society, and urging that we simply get to know our neighbors in this vital center of their lives, she has produced an indispensable book. As you read it, take a look around your own community.

John Wilsonis editor of Books & Culture and editor-at-large for Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christianity Today contributing editor Lauren Winner interviewed Diana Eck about her book for Publishers Weekly.

Earlier Christianity Today articles on immigration include:

European Churches Declare Immigrants Are Not 'Potential Criminals' | Petitions submitted to the European Union for more protection, aid. (June 13, 2001)

Separation Anxiety | Haitian immigrants are less welcome than Cubans, but Florida churches are filling the hospitality gap.(April 24, 2000)

Saving Bodies, Rescuing Souls | Chechen Muslims find Salvationist care has compassionate accent. (April 24, 2000)

In Sri Lanka's No Man's Land, Churches Provide Some Hope for Refugees | Christians mobilize to help nearly a million left homeless by Tamil conflict (April 18, 2000)

The Torture Victim Next Door | Hidden victims of religious persecution find refuge in America (Mar. 6, 2000)

Church Aids Refugees Despite Violence | The Catholic church has been a place of refuge and reform for those opposing the Indonesian government. (October 25, 1999)

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July (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45