$24.95 paper
ISBN 0-8078-5559-6

Published: Fall 2004

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Copyright (c) 2004 by the University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved.




Introduction

We offer this book as something unique in the field of American religious studies. We made it purposefully so.

The text reflects the changes in our field of study. During the 1980s, scholars challenged many aspects of the traditional narrative of American religious history. Like its secular counterpart, religious history had for decades highlighted the thoughts of men, mostly white, as the "real story," while everyone else who was religious provided either background or alternatives that were usually understood merely as foils to the metanarrative. The past decade saw those walls fall, as many scholars situated themselves outside the traditional places from which the story was told—highlighting instead the roles of women, or various regions, or ethnicities that were usually ignored. Together, they effectively demolished the long-standing narrative of the cultural hegemony of (particularly) Protestant ideas played out against the backdrop of America, a "decentralization" of the story in order to include more of its components.

The toughest criticism to be made against this new approach is that it leaves too little coherence to the story—if the metanarrative is broken, like Humpty-Dumpty's shell, it can never be patched together or replaced by another coherent structure. This criticism is less academic than it is practical, for how are we to teach about America's religious past if, in fact, it can only be understood in pieces, never as a whole? Can students really be asked to understand the intricacies and complexities of religion in America without some sort of a clothesline on which to hang the events, people, and interpretations? Isn't the old narrative necessary, if for no other reason than to offer structure to the many elements that constitute the whole story?

This volume was born out of the struggle to hew the line between the two poles in this debate. We have sought to do so with an intellectual integrity that recognizes both the demise of the old way of doing things and the need for some constructed narrative for people to understand the past. Therefore we have chosen to consider significant perspectives that offer different viewpoints—or, as Thomas Tweed would say, "sites"—on religion in America. We have elected to stand both inside and outside the doors of faith in offering this unique analysis of America's religious past. About one-third of the book situates itself inside those aspects of faith that are common to most groups; the remainder of the volume positions itself outside the church, synagogue, or temple in order to study relationships between religion and other aspects of American culture.

In each case, though, chapters are clearly chronological and narrative driven. This nod to traditional understandings of history, we feel, is important, particularly in the classroom. Although readers who eventually go beyond this introductory text might someday find its structure too linear and conventional, given academic debates over the past generation, they no doubt will have benefited from its arrangement. They will know that religion in America, indeed, has many components—which are often defined according to different perspectives—but they will understand those components as existing with beginnings and periods of development, change, and challenge and as full of interesting and important people throughout. In other words, even though we have abandoned the traditional narrative, we have not discarded the tradition of narrative.

It must be made clear from the outset that these essays are not meant to turn the field on its head. That has already been accomplished by the myriad monographs that have pushed aside traditional ways of understanding America's religious past. Rather, these chapters are syntheses of those pathbreaking works; they are attempts to bring together into a coherent whole the concepts put forth by those books that, quite literally, rewrote history. Whereas most of these books were confined to a specific region or era, our authors have presented their information and arguments under broad themes for the entirety of American history.

We arranged this volume to be read in various possible fashions. For those interested in a topical approach to American religion, we offer eleven perspectives that run through its history. Some of these themes are constituents of religion itself—such as theology and proselytization. Others—like race, gender, and regionalism—are elements of larger cultural forces that have interacted with religion in America over time. Indeed, one can easily understand religion existing in a symbiotic relationship with those aspects of life as they twist and turn around, against, and even through one another over time. For instance, race, ethnicity, gender, the state, economy, science, diversity, and region have all played important roles in shaping religion in America and, in turn, have been deeply influenced by religion.

One should not read too much into the order in which these thematic essays are presented. Each one is meant to stand alone and thus can be read in any order. The topics offered do not constitute all the possible themes but are the ones that we feel cover the key elements and encompass many of the other issues that one might wish to see developed under the broad heading of the section. For instance, "denominations" is a significant feature in America's religious history. But it might best be understood as a protoform of the religious diversity we see today. Therefore, denominations are discussed in the chapter entitled "Diversity and Region." Immigration is covered in the chapters on region and ethnicity. Such topics as capitalism, Americanization, nationalism, and democracy are addressed directly in chapters on economics, ethnicity, and the state. Likewise, the topic of scripture is central to the chapter on theology and plays a lesser but still significant role in virtually every other essay.

Another way to read this book is chronologically. We have divided each chapter into the same historical periods:

• precolonial era
• colonial North America
• revolutionary and early republican America
• antebellum nineteenth century
• postbellum and industrial nineteenth century
• early twentieth century
• modern America

Philip Goff ~ Paul Harvey
Indianapolis, Indiana ~ Colorado Springs, Colorado