American Religious Liberalism. Edited by Leigh E. Schmidt and Sally M. Promey. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012. xii + 416 pp. $85.00 cloth; $30.00 paper.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)American Religious Liberalism . Edited by Leigh E. Schmidt and Sally M. Promey . Bloomington : Indiana University Press , 2012. xii + 416 pp. $85.00 cloth; $30.00 paper.Book Reviews and NotesAlmost four decades ago William Hutchison wrote then-definitive work on the modernist impulse in American religious life. He viewed religious liberalism through lens of intellectual history and focused exclusively on nation's Protestant theological heritage. Not surprisingly, Hutchison framed liberal religion as way that certain progressive ideas long-grown in Protestant theology guided those adjusting to defining features of a dawning modernity (for example, science, biblical scholarship).Leigh Schmidt and Sally Promey set out to explore broad diversity of American religious liberalism free from categories that constrained Hutchison's vision of this fluid spiritual impulse. To do this they invited sixteen scholars to contribute original essays exploring topics that might be broadly characterized as 1) spirituality in arts, 2) agendas born of religious cosmopolitanism, and 3) interactions between religious and secular forms of liberalism.It is somewhat ironic that many of strongest essays in collection echo at least parts of Hutchison's basic take on liberal strain of American religious thought. Christopher White, example, tells fascinating story of artist Juliet Thompson. Living in an era when Christian claims to superiority were undermined by increased interreligious contact and modern biblical scholarship, Thompson discovered universalist message of Baha'i' faith en route to discovering an artistic style enabling her to experience a spiritual presence through material forms. Matthew Hedstrom's article in book's second section shows that push greater interfaith connections led many Americans beyond religious parochialism to a cosmopolitan faith that dissolved fixed orthodoxies. Hedstrom focuses on wide reading audiences books that John Dewey described as written for people who feel inarticulately that they have essence of religious with them and yet are repelled by religion and are confused (221). Bestselling books, many promoted by Religious Book Club, provided new vocabularies that rendered personal faith consistent with latest scientific thinking and sensitivity to cross-cultural diversity. Yaakov Ariel's essay on Jewish liberalism similarly understands Reform Judaism in terms of same impulses Hutchison and others discern in liberal Protestantism such as embracing idea of progress, affirming scientific discoveries, and incorporating higher criticism of Bible.An insight developed through several of book's essays has to do with role that metaphysical religion has played in historical expressions of American religious liberalism. Whereas intellectual historians typically focus on highbrow sources of theology, decidedly middlebrow philosophies associated with western esotericism and New Thought have played important roles in stretching Americans' ontological imaginations in ways that encourage theological innovation. …