God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America

God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 345
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780197624234
ISBN-13 : 0197624235
Rating : 4/5 (34 Downloads)

Book Synopsis God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America by : Isaac Barnes May

Download or read book God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America written by Isaac Barnes May and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-12-13 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is about the relationship between the American religious left and secularization. It explores how three liberal religions -liberal Quakers, Unitarians, and Reconstructionist Jews- attempted to preserve their traditions in the modern world by redefining what it meant to be religious. Between the 1920s and the 1960s, these groups underwent the most massive theological change imaginable, allowing their members to opt not to believe in a personal God. As the God of traditional theism did not seem to fit into a post-Darwinian framework, these traditions took the dramatic step of redefining that concept to make a "God" that did fit, and eventually they went even further by making belief in God a matter of purely personal preference. This book narrates how, over the course of the twentieth century, believing in God and being religious became increasingly disconnected. It documents the continuance of these religious communities even after the theological rationales that originally brought them together disappeared, their communal identities instead becoming focused on humanitarian service and political commitments, which began to replace a shared adherence to theism. The radical religious views of these small liberal denominations became influential among the wider society, and eventually became accepted in American popular culture and law"--


God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America Related Books

God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America
Language: en
Pages: 345
Authors: Isaac Barnes May
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-12-13 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This book is about the relationship between the American religious left and secularization. It explores how three liberal religions -liberal Quakers, Unitarian
Religion in American Life
Language: en
Pages: 573
Authors: Jon Butler
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-10-06 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Quite ambitious, tracing religion in the United States from European colonization up to the 21st century.... The writing is strong throughout."--Publishers Wee
God and the Atlantic
Language: en
Pages: 271
Authors: Thomas Albert Howard
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-01-20 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first major work of cultural and intellectual history devoted to the subject of the transatlantic religious divide. Using nineteenth and early twentieth cen
Devotions and Desires
Language: en
Pages: 316
Authors: Gillian A. Frank
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-02-06 - Publisher: UNC Press Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

At a moment when "freedom of religion" rhetoric fuels public debate, it is easy to assume that sex and religion have faced each other in pitched battle througho
Selling God
Language: en
Pages: 329
Authors: Robert Laurence Moore
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 1994 - Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In a sweeping colourful history that spans over two centuries of American culture, Moore examines the role of religion in America as it appropriated (and was ap