Restless Souls: The Making of American SpiritualityYoga classes and Zen meditation, New-Age retreats and nature mysticism—all are part of an ongoing religious experimentation that has surprisingly deep roots in American history. Tracing out the country’s Transcendentalist and cosmopolitan religious impulses over the last two centuries, Restless Souls explores America’s abiding romance with spirituality as religion’s better half. Now in its second edition, including a new preface, Leigh Eric Schmidt's fascinating book provides a rich account of how this open-road spirituality developed in American culture in the first place as well as a sweeping survey of the liberal religious movements that touted it and ensured its continued vitality. |
Contents
CHAPTER | 25 |
CHAPTER | 63 |
CHAPTER THREE | 101 |
CHAPTER FOUR | 143 |
Freedom and SelfSurrender | 181 |
CHAPTER | 227 |
EPILOGUE | 269 |
Notes | 291 |
Index | 298 |
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Abdu'l-Bahá Alcott Alger American religion American spirituality Bahá'í Bahá'í faith Bjerregaard Boston Buddhist Catholic century Chicago Christian church Club Cobb Concord cosmopolitan culture devotional Dharmapala diary divine Dresser eclectic Eliot England essay ethical evangelical faith Free Religious Association Friends Frothingham gions gious Greenacre Harvard Haverford heart Henry Hermit Howard Thurman imagined individual Isherwood Jesus John Journal Kelly’s lecture lives Max Ehrmann meditation Metaphysical mind modern mysticism nineteenth-century Octavius Brooks Frothingham Pendle Hill philosophy piety poet practice prayer Press Princeton Protestant Quaker quest radical Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Trine reform reli Religious Experience religious liberalism retreat Rufus Jones Sanborn Sarah Farmer Scripture seekers seeking social Society solitary solitude soul Swami Sympathy of Religions Theosophical Thomas Wentworth Higginson Thoreau Thought tion Transcendental Transcendental Club Transcendentalist turn Unitarian Univ University Varieties of Religious Vedanta vision Vivekananda Walden Walt Whitman Whittier William James writings wrote York