This is the first-ever in-depth study of the Soka Gakkai Buddhists in the United States of America. Drawing on new and revealing surveys and interviews, it paints a fascinating picture of one of the fastest-growing religions in the world.

"Pretty much like the rest of the country, only more so." This quip from Wallace Stegner well-represents the Pacific region's religious culture. California, Nevada, and Hawaii emerged more recently, more quickly and with more diversity and fluidity than the other United States. Although influenced by Mexican Catholicism, Native Traditions, Asian Religions, and Euro-American Christianity, no religious tradition dominates, and a secular ethos usually reigns. But this very religious indifference makes California and the rest of the region open to all sorts of missionary movements and religious innovations. New organizational forms, new spiritual therapies, and new religious hybrids all compete for residents' attention along with secular ways for making meaning. With all these options, residents of the region mix, match, and move between religious identities more than other Americans. Without ignoring its diversity, Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Region highlights the key aspects of the region's fluctuating religions and its spirituality's impact on political life.

Global Citizens is a study of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist movement, which was founded in 1930 in Japan, spread rapidly after WWII, and has since developed a world-wide following. The book provides an historical overview of the importance of the development of the movement as an educational reform society, its development into a sect of Nichiren Buddhism. The book also explains the success of Soka Gakkai Buddhism with reference to continuity between Soka Gakkai teachings and the experience of people living in urban, industrial environments and Soka Gakkai's response to the surrounding social and cultural environment.