Books in the Religion in North America series

The biography of a southern lady and her spiritual quest

... a marvelous source for the social history of Russian peasant society in the years before the revolution.... The translation is superb."e; -Steven Hoch... one of the best ethnographic portraits that we have of the Russian village.... a highly readable text that is an excellent introduction to the world of the Russian peasantry."e; -Samuel C. RamerVillage Life in Late Tsarist Russia provides a unique firsthand portrait of peasant family life as recorded by Olga Semyonova Tian-Shanskaia, an ethnographer and painter who spent four years at the turn of the twentieth century observing the life and customs of villagers in a central Russian province. Unusual in its awareness of the rapid changes in the Russian village in the late nineteenth century and in its concentration on the treatment of women and children, Semyonova's ethnography vividly describes courting rituals, marriage and sexual practices, childbirth, infanticide, child-rearing practices, the lives of women, food and drink, work habits, and the household economy. In contrast to a tradition of rosy, romanticized descriptions of peasant communities by Russian upper-class observers, Semyonova gives an unvarnished account of the harsh living conditions and often brutal relationships within peasant families.

Traces the way in which the altered view of the End shaped the foreign missions movement, the social gospel, and ecumenical endeavour. This book, in chronicling changing views of the last things, also traces the emergence of some of the central dynamics - and discontents - of mainstream Protestantism in the twentieth century.

Early American Methodists described their religious lives as great wars with sin and claimed they wrestled with God and Satan who assaulted them in terrible ways. This book explores this violent aspect of American religious life and thought. It exposes Methodism's insistence that warfare was an inevitable part of Christian life.

Exploring themes of work and labour in everyday life, this work offers a history of how coal miners and their families lived their religion in eastern Kentucky's coal fields during the early 20th century. It traces innovation and continuity in religious expression that emerged from the specific experiences of coal mining.

Among the deservedly well-known works of art produced by the Shakers are many religious drawings and paintings produced under inspiration by members of the community. This work explores this aspect of Shaker visual culture.

Explores how Native Americans influenced the Christianity of their colonisers.

By examining wills and other personal documents, as well as early Maryland's material culture, this transatlantic study depicts women's place in society and the ways religious values and social arrangements shaped their lives. It takes a revisionist approach to the study of women and religion in colonial Maryland.

Contributes to a richer understanding of this diverse, dynamic, and fluid religious world

Contributes to a richer understanding of this diverse, dynamic, and fluid religious world

How do American Jews identify as both Jewish and American? American Post-Judaism argues that Zionism and the Holocaust, two anchors of contemporary American Jewish identity, will no longer be centers of identity formation for future generations of American Jews. Shaul Magid articulates a new, post-ethnic American Jewishness. He discusses pragmatism and spirituality, monotheism and post-monotheism, Jesus, Jewish law, sainthood and self-realization, and the meaning of the Holocaust for those who have never known survivors. Magid presents Jewish Renewal as a movement that takes this radical cultural transition seriously in its strivings for a new era in Jewish thought and practice.

Features a prologue that considers the meaning of the tragedy for a post-Waco, post-9/11 world. This book recalls the American religious commitment to redemptive sacrifice, which for Jim Jones meant saving his followers from the evils of capitalist society.

This richly detailed study highlights the last two decades of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, a prominent religious thinker whose character and achievement are just beginning to be understood. It is the first book-length discussion of Eddy to make full use of the resources of the Mary Baker Eddy Collection in Boston. Rolling Away the Stone focuses on her long-reaching legacy as a Christian thinker, specifically her challenge to the materialism that threatens religious belief and practice.

A meeting of American Protestantism with Asian religious traditions

Taking the influential work of Arthur Huff Fauset as a starting point to break down the false dichotomy that exists between mainstream and marginal, this title features a new generation of scholars who offer fresh ideas for understanding the religious expressions of African Americans in the United States.

A biography of one of America's notorious and misunderstood women.

A watershed event in American religious history

An exploration of five ideas that have become particularly powerful catalysts in the theological imaginations of women in many difference communities. It offers a multi-voiced response to the question: 'When women across many traditions are heard speaking theologically, publicly and self-consciously as women, what do they have to say?'.

Explorations of the religious imagination in American urban communities.

Details unconventional expressions of new religious thought

Details unconventional expressions of new religious thought

A collection of 11 essays, which examine the Esalen Institute's roots, the place of its beliefs in American religious history, and its influence. It is suitable for those interested in the history of American religion as well as those who regard this place as the epicenter of the human potential movement.

Tells the story of Hopi religious life in a way that makes sense to both Hopis and outsiders. While not the Hopi's own story, this account attempts to honor and do justice to the way in which the Hopi embody religious meaning through the living of their lives.