Communities of dissent : a history of alternative religions in America / Stephen J. Stein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stein, Stephen J., 1940- author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cults--United States--History.

Cults.

Sects--United States--History.

Sects.

United States--Religion.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (185 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2023.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Alternative religious groups have had a profound influence on American history-they have challenged the old and opened up new ways of thinking about healing, modes of meaning, religious texts and liturgies, the social and political order, and the relationships between religion and race, class, gender, and region. Virtually always, the dramatic, dynamic history of alternative religions runs parallel to that of dissent in America. Communities of Dissent is an evenhanded and marvelously lively history of New Religious Movements in America. Stephen J. Stein describes the evolution and structure of alternative religious movements from both sides: the critics and the religious dissenters themselves. Providing a fascinating look at a wide range of New Religious Movements, he investigates obscure groups such as the 19th-century Vermont Pilgrims, who wore bearskins and refused to bathe or cut their hair, alongside better-known alternative believers, including colonial America's largest outsider faith, the Quakers; 17th- and 18th-century Mennonites, Amish, and Shakers; and the Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Black Muslims, and Scientologists of today. Accessible and comprehensive, Communities of Dissent also covers the milestones in the history of alternative American religions, from the infamous Salem witch trials and mass suicide/murder at Jonestown to the positive ways in which alternative religions have affected racial relations, the empowerment of women, and American culture in general.

Contents:

Cover; CONTENTS; PREFACE; INTRODUCTION: Talking About Religious Outsiders; CHAPTER ONE: Early Dissenters and Popular Religion; CHAPTER TWO: Peace Movements in Colonial America; CHAPTER THREE: Communitarians Living on the Margins; CHAPTER FOUR: Apocalyptic Traditions: Watching and Waiting for the End; CHAPTER FIVE: Healers and Occultists: Women of Spiritual Means; CHAPTER SIX: Sectarians in the City; CHAPTER SEVEN: Twentieth-Century Sects and Cults; CHRONOLOGY; FURTHER READING; INDEX

Notes:

Previously issued in print: New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on November 22, 2023).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786613097866

9780199882724

019988272X

9780197738665

0197738664

9781283097864

1283097869

9780199760664

0199760667

OCLC:

719369577