This article was originally posted at BBC Radio Wales.

On Wednesday, we should know who will become the most powerful person in the world. The US Presidential election has been called ‘the biggest unpopularity contest in America’s recent history’, with torrents of allegations about both candidates, and revelations ranging from the breathtaking to the simply squalid.

Yet it could make history by choosing the first woman president. Or a maverick outsider. Roy Jenkins asks how significant religious groups have been in this campaign. Is their involvement likely to swing the result – and even if it does will it leave them damaged? And how much do we know of what Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump actually believe?

Joseph Loconte is an associate professor of history at the King’s College in New York City and the author of A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918.