RT Book
T1 The delight makers: Anglo-American metaphysical religion and the pursuit of happiness
A1 Albanese, Catherine L. 1940-
LA English
PP Chicago London
PB The University of Chicago Press
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1811738893
AB "Can you draw a clear line through American history from the Puritans to the "Nones" of today? On the surface, there is not much connective tissue between the former, who often serve as shorthand for a persistent religious fanaticism in the United States, and the almost one quarter of the population who now regularly check the "None" or "None of the above" box when responding to surveys of religious preference. But instead of seeing a disconnect between these two groups separated by time, historian Catherine Albanese insists there is a deep connection that spans the centuries. With a targeted romp through American history from the seventeenth century to the present, Albanese ties together these seemingly disparate groups through a shared and distinctively American preoccupation with delight and desire. Albanese begins our journey with the role of delight and desire in the brand of Calvinism championed by renowned Puritan minister Cotton Mather and later Jonathan Edwards. She then traces the development of these themes up through the present, treating the reader to revelatory readings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Bushnell, Andrew Jackson Davis, William James, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Elizabeth Towne, and others, revealing the contours of an evolving theology of desire. The result is an original and entertaining take on an underexamined through line in American history"--
AB "An ambitious history of desire in American religion across over three centuries. The pursuit of happiness weaves disparate strands of American religious history together. In The Delight Makers, Catherine L. Albanese unravels a theology of desire tying Jonathan Edwards to Ralph Waldo Emerson to the religiously unaffiliated today. As others emphasize redemptive suffering, this tradition stresses the "metaphysical" connection between natural beauty and spiritual fulfillment. In the earth's abundance, these thinkers see an expansive God intent on fulfilling human desire through prosperity, health, and sexual freedom. Through careful readings of Cotton Mather, Andrew Jackson Davis, William James, Esther Hicks, and more, Albanese reveals how a theology of delight evolved alongside political overtures to natural law and individual liberty in the United States"--
NO Includes bibliographical references and index
CN BL2525
SN 9780226823331
SN 9780226823546
K1 Metaphysics
K1 PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics
K1 Religion / History
K1 United States : Religion : History
K1 United States : Church history
DO 10.7208/chicago/9780226823348.001.0001