Religion in American Life: A Short History

Zoom bookclub. Everyone likes and is enjoying the book.

Such an ingenious volume, three in one really, tackling three centuries and more of American religious life. At times it might seem too breezy, but that is the point, as it pushes you, the reader, to see the bigger patterns. American religion has a unique shape and movement. So much of American religion is outsized, too, and to see everything from a wide perspective is a much needed help, pretty much a spiritual endeavor in its own right. So appreciate this work and its authors who are distilling their life's work so the everyday student of religion can enjoy it.

a little bit about everyone. stuff i did not know about who thought about what when. seems i guess dated, i wonder if there is not more known. on the other hand battles over evolution have not quite finished, and religion as something to use to get people to vote your way, is an american cynical tradition. i guess i wonder that we as a people have not grown up much.

This is a required reading text for a course I am auditingat the local university. My wife was kind enough to acquireit for me to use in the course.It is an analysis of the indfluince of various religions butparticularly Christianity in the early stages of the Americanrepublic, and the iinfluence of the variety of religions in thecurrent reality of the 21st century, as the nation becomesa destination for non-wester-Europian immigration.Well written and enjoyable!Robert Stocking

Basically a run down of the history of all religions. The best part is that it covers a lot of different angles to the story, like Spanish settlement in the South West, Catholicism, non Christian religions, the lot really. This makes it a good reference work. I recommend it particularly for home schoolers and students who want more than what is in the text books.

Great book to provide overview of religion in America. It wasn’t difficult to read and it was informative.

What a pleasant suprise! This book is objectively written; easily readable and accurate without bias and proved to be a incredible resource of information. So much so that I intend to use the book as our text for an OLLI course that I will be offering to Seniors in our seminars on continuing education.

Just what I expected.