Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States

＂An urgent exploration of borders as sacred objects in American culture. Our national conversation about the border has taken a religious turn. When televangelists declare, ＂Heaven has a wall,＂ activists shout back, ＂Jesus was a refugee.＂ For Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, the standoff makes explicit a longstanding truth: borders are religious as well as political objects. In this book, Hurd argues that Americans share a bipartisan border religion, complete with an array of beliefs and practices, including a reverence for national security, a liturgy for immigration, and an eschatological foreign policy. Through an analysis of the many ways the United States creates, enforces, and ignores borders at home and abroad, Hurd offers a bold new perspective on the ties that bind American religion, politics, and public life＂--

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is professor of political science and religious studies at Northwestern University. Her books include Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion and Politics of Religious Freedom, the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.