Religious Revolutionaries

Fuller picks up where his Spiritual, but Not Religious (Oxford 2001) left off in this study of men and women who were "creatively religious" as they encountered the main currents of American religion. Fuller sets his study of these "religious revolutionaries" in the context of their own times, thus providing a helpful and concise overview of American religious history from colonial times to the 21st century. He begins his study with Anne Hutchinson, who preached that God's revelation to individuals could occur mystically and outside of official church meetings and questioned the prevailing Puritan doctrine that external works provided a manifestation of God's grace. Fuller also examines Thomas Jefferson's Deism, Ralph Waldo Emerson's metaphysical spiritualism, Joseph Smith's sectarian visions, Phineas Quimby's mesmerism, Andrew Jackson Davis's spiritualism, William James's psychology of religion, Paul Tillich's existential theology, Mary Daly's radical feminism and James Cone's black theology.