Ripon Public Library

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

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-155) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Communities of dissent

bibliography

49699431

Stephen J. Stein

a history of alternative religions in America

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 history of alternative religions runs parallel to that of dissent in America. Communities of dissent is an evenhanded 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

Talking about religious outsiders -- Early dissenters and popular religion -- Peace movements in colonial America -- Communitarians living on the margins -- Apocalyptic traditions: watching and waiting for the end -- Healers and occultists: women of spiritual means -- Sectarians in the city -- Twentieth-century sects and cults