Prayer In American Public Life

Vile's book sympathetically explores how prayer has been understood, practiced, expounded, and even exploited throughout U.S. history in the public square, while being legally constrained in public school settings to prevent coercion or state endorsement of particular religious beliefs. In addition to explaining judicial decisions that have treated prayers in such settings, the volume shows how politicians, especially presidents, continue to utilize prayer to unite citizens in times of anxiety, conflict, and grief in public speeches and sometimes through proclamations of thanksgiving after harvests, the end of wars, and major historic achievements. Vile also highlights prayers as expressed in American aphorisms, literature, films and movies, music and other forms of art, and discusses individuals who were the first members of their faiths to pray in Congress or in other public settings.