Secularism in Antebellum America (Religion and Postmodernism)

Secularism in Antebellum America (Religion and Postmodernism)

Ghosts. Railroads. Sing Sing. Sex machines. These are just a few of the phenomena that appear in John Lardas Modernâ€™s pioneering account of religion and society in nineteenth-century America. This book uncovers surprising connections between secular ideology and the rise of technologies that opened up new ways of being religious. Exploring the eruptions of religion in New Yorkâ€™s penny presses, the budding fields of anthropology and phrenology, andÂ Moby-Dick, Modern challenges the strict separation between the religious and the secular that remains integral to discussions about religion today.

Modern frames his study around the dread, wonder, paranoia, and manic confidence of being haunted, arguing that experiences and explanations of enchantment fueled secularismâ€™s emergence. The awareness of spectral energies coincided with attempts to tame the unruly fruits of secularismâ€”in the cultivation of a spiritual self among Unitarians, for instance, or in John Murray Spearâ€™s erotic longings for a perpetual motion machine. Combining rigorous theoretical inquiry with beguiling historical arcana, Modern unsettles long-held views of religion and the methods of narrating its past.
Country USA
Brand University of Chicago Press
Manufacturer University of Chicago Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber black & white illustrations
ReleaseDate 2015-12-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780226325132

Country	USA
Brand	University of Chicago Press
Manufacturer	University of Chicago Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	black & white illustrations
ReleaseDate	2015-12-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780226325132

Secularism in Antebellum America (Religion and Postmodernism)

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