This proposed panel will convene an Author Meets Critique session on the recently published book Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States (University of Chicago Press, 2025) by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd. In this timely and provocative book, Hurd argues that borders function as sacred objects in American public life, sustained by what she calls a bipartisan "border religion." Through concepts such as reverence for national security, a liturgy of immigration, and an eschatological foreign policy, Heaven Has a Wall reframes contemporary debates over US borders by revealing their religious dimensions. Borders, she argues, offer a window onto unexplored political and religious dimensions of the American national project. The interdisciplinary panel will bring together scholars from religious studies, political theory, international relations, and migration studies to critically engage with Hurd's core arguments. Interlocutors will examine how the book reshapes understandings of secularism, sovereignty, civil religion, and U.S. global power, as well as its implications for the study of religion beyond the focus on belief or institutions. The author will respond to the discussants' commentaries, reflecting on the book's interventions, its main stakes, and future directions for research on religion in national and international politics.

International Relations, Religious Studies, Law and Religion