Introduction: Awash in a Sea of Metaphysics

Abstract

This title owes not a little to Jon Butler, whose landmark 1990 book Awash in a Sea of Faith, perhaps not intentionally, paved the way for the exploration of metaphysical religion in the essays that follow. In a work subtitled Christianizing the American People, Butler triangulated the religious forces at work in early America, pointing to mainline denominational Christianity, evangelicalism, and the third force, here called metaphysics. Chronicling the first two has formed and informed much of the work of American religious historians over the years. The third has been rather neglected, with the assumption that—through the good offices of either evangelicals or mainliners—it had been reduced to a relatively minor place in the story. Recent work in the field, however, has begun to dispute that assessment. The essays presented in this issue are part of an emerging field that probes American metaphysical religion not only because of what it is in itself but also because of what it reveals regarding all of American religious history and culture.