Abstract
Abstract The first chapter provides background for the rise of God-optional religion by addressing the progression of secularization in the United States in the early twentieth century. It focuses on the lives of clergy, and some laity, who felt their faith challenged by this process, often having to reimagine their beliefs to stay religious. This change was frequently analogized to maturing from childhood to adulthood. The chapter argues that this process of rejecting and reinterpreting faith was common across many religious groups and was understood to be part of the experience of going to seminary. The chapter also considers the difference between God-optional groups and other liberal religious communities when it came to dealing with these crises of faith.
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