Religious Revolutionaries: The Rebels Who Reshaped American Religion

by Robert C. Fuller

In this clever and entertaining look at the United States and religious freedom, Robert C. Fuller introduces us to religious revolutionaries who, in very unique ways, shaped American religious tradition and fought to establish new forms of spirituality. Chronological in scope, Religious Revolutionaries takes us from Puritanism and Calvinism in America's colonial period to present-day belief systems. We meet religious rebels who are widely recognized, such as Thomas Jefferson, the architect of our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. We meet Andrew Jackson Davis, America's first trance channeler and forceful champion of the inner divinity of every person. We are introduced to Mary Daly, who openly confronted the sexist bias of most organized religion. We also learn about trailblazers such as Phineas P. Quimby, who challenged the Protestant theology of his day and whose ideas became the foundation for Christian Science philosophy, and James Cone, the bold spokesperson for black power and black spirituality. Religious Revolutionaries is a page-turner that focuses on the people who shaped religion in the United States, but it is also a captivating journey through the history of our diverse country.

Genres: Religion

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Dr. Robert Fuller has received national and international acclaim for his unique contributions in the areas of American cultural history and the interaction of religion and the social sciences. Author of twelve books, including five by Oxford University Press, and numerous articles published in professional journals, he is among the top authorities in his field with a number of his books being used in university classrooms across the country.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an active church-going American member of an American-born religion, I found this book picked up on a whim to be more interesting than I expected. Learning about quite a few major players that were not familiar to me was enlightening: Anne Hutchison. Phineas Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy, Mary Daily and James Cone.

The impact of the Transcendentalists weaves its way through more threads of American religiosity than I was aware of. I wasn't really able to absorb the William James section.

The closing encouragement of the author to be creatively religious was a nifty closing statement.