North America

Though the term North America sometimes includes Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean Islands, these regions have been included in the entry on Latin America, so this entry will focus on the North American countries of Canada and the United States, which are quintessential modern experiments. Nearly from the beginning, these nations have separated religion from national government, created a pluralistic religious settlement, and opened the public square to competing religious claims. Nonetheless, at various times in their histories, religion has dominated the cultural and, more rarely, the political ethos. This has been especially true with regard to Christianity in the contemporary, globalized era. Thus, creating an open religious market allowed the religions of North America to thrive rather than wilt as some theorists of ...