America's Religions: From Their Origins to the Twenty-first Century

by Peter W. Williams

In this comprehensive survey, Williams offers concise descriptions of the background, beliefs, practices, and leaders of America's most influential and distinctive religious movements and denominations. Thoroughly revised and updated, this third edition of America's Religions incorporates the latest scholarship on religion and considers timely issues such as status of Muslims in the United States after September 11, 2001; the impact of religion on American politics, especially concerning the emergence of the Religious Right; and the intense battles fought within the Catholic Church and other denominations over the status of gay marriage and accusations of clergy members' sexual abuse. This edition also includes thirty-eight new illustrations of key persons in American religious history and notable places of worship.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Textbooks

624 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Brian Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an extremely in depth look at religion in America and how each sect was formed. Although I found that at times this book had a propensity to jump around and was at points hard to follow, it nonetheless is perhaps the best overview of the religious landscape in the United States.

[John Ruttan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely opened my eyes

I read this book for one of my college courses, and it definitely taught me a lot about American religions.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In America’s Religions: From Their Origins to the Twenty-First Century, Peter W. Williams sets out to present a narrative account of the religious life of the United States by simultaneously “recognizing that each religious community has its own unique character and story…[and acknowledging] the commonalities that they share.” While earlier religious histories have privileged Protestantism as the dominant thread of American life and more recent religious studies have fragmented in postmodern fashion into a collection of individual or group religious experiences, Williams sets out to walk a middle ground. He is determined to “delineate the major features of public religion” that is shared among distinct religious groups. This ambitious task—to map the differences and similarities among virtually all of the religious communities in America from Native American origins into the twenty-first century—is helped along by Williams clearly defined terms in his introduction. For example, “denomination” is identified as a new kind of religious organization that is both self-supporting and free from external interference. Williams also identifies unique American forces and circumstances as another strategy for coherency among the cacophony of religious traditions. Immigration, British culture, slavery and race, democracy, capitalism, nationalism, pluralism, and Americanization are framed as major themes that facilitate the “interaction of individual religious groups with the broader social order.” �

Williams ambitious task of chronicling each diverse strand of American religious tradition while fitting it into a seamless single narrative has its shortcomings, but given the nearly impossible, paradoxical nature of his self-defined project, he does produce a useful index for American religions that does make some cases for common “processes.” The book is organized into chronological parts that are then divided by larger organizing traditions and themes that then divide into individual chapters on individual religious movements. Rather than deal with each religious strand all at once, he addresses them multiple times as he moves along chronologically; Mormons, for example get a chapter on their nineteenth century origins to the end of polygamy in 1890 and then later get another chapter that focuses on the faith’s transition into a more conservative, “mainstream” religion in the second half of the twentieth century. The narrative flow and organization book works better than one might expect. Not only does this book prove useful to understand the key beliefs and origins of American religions, but it also provides a fairly good understanding of the broad changes overtime within many American religions. Williams comes to the conclusion that “while the content of American religion is in a continual flux as new groups arrive or arise and shifts of influence continue, the underlying processes that have made religious life of the United States distinctive since its national origins also persist.” While his case for diversity and change is stronger than his case for similarity and continuity among American religions, Williams has provided a provocative, paradoxical framework from which to discuss and better understand America’s religions.

[Why-why · Rating 3 out of 5]

Realllly needed to have taken notes on this one, couldn't keep track of the different disciplines & terms. This book would be greatly enhanced with a glossary & flow chart.