Colonial Devotional Paths

Abstract

It is hard for a sophisticated person to believe in God these days. An intellectually honest devotee of any personified deity in the twenty-first century must admit this. The environment for believers of all stripes has become increasingly hostile in recent years. In North America, for example, educated people often find themselves ashamed of admitting adherence to anachronistic devotional practices like petitionary prayer, ritualistic observance, belief in miracles, or the public affirmation that one is a follower of a particular deity. ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy Hanukkah’ have been bowdlerized and transformed into ‘Happy Holidays’ in the American town square. Campus ‘ministers’ and spiritual life ‘directors’ on most secular college campuses no longer worry themselves overmuch with the metaphysical idiosyncrasies of their own traditions, but instead function as spiritual cruise directors-tour guides to religious destinations to which they owe little allegiance. Indeed, the situation of partisan theistic belief in North America is such that one is tempted to postulate that if one were to corner an ordained minister from a mainline Protestant church today, one would have a fifty-fifty chance of finding a shame-faced agnostic hiding beneath the robes of tradition and rote piety.