Themes in Religion and American Culture

Philip Goff, Paul Harvey, Philip Goff, Paul Harvey

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9780807875827
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Vergleichende Religion

Designed to serve as an introduction to American religion, this volume is distinctive in its approach: instead of following a traditional narrative, the book is arranged thematically. Eleven chapters by top scholars present, in carefully organized and accessible fashion, topics and perspectives fundamental to the understanding of religion in America. Some of the chapters treat aspects of faith typical to most religious groups, such as theology, proselytization, supernaturalism, and cosmology. Others deal with race, ethnicity, gender, the state, economy, science, diversity, and regionalism--facets of American culture that often interact with religion. Each topical essay is structured chronologically, divided into sections on pre-colonial, colonial, revolutionary and early republican, antebellum, postbellum and late nineteenth-century, early twentieth-century, and modern America. One can study the extended history of a certain theme, or read "across" the book for a study of all the themes during a specific period in history. This book's new approach offers a rich analysis of the genuine complexity of American religious life. With a helpful glossary of basic religious terms, movements, people, and groups, this book will become an essential tool for students and teachers of religion.
Contributors:
Yvonne Chireau, Swarthmore College
Amy DeRogatis, Michigan State University
William Durbin, Washington Theological Union
Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University
James German, State University of New York, Potsdam
Philip Goff, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis
Paul Harvey, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Sue Marasco, Vanderbilt University
Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, University of Chicago Divinity School
Roberto Trevino, University of Texas, Arlington
David Weaver-Zercher, Messiah College

Chapter One: Theologies

David L. Weaver-Zercher

Literally speaking, the word theology means “words about God.” Derived from the Greek terms for God (theos) and word (logos), theology is the process of thinking about God and putting those ideas into words. In much the same way that biology is the process of putting ideas about life (bios) into words and anthropology is the process of putting ideas about humanity (anthropos) into words, to engage in theology means to participate in the process of thinking and talking about God. Theology is often taught normatively, an approach in which students are instructed to embrace certain ideas about God, since these ideas are held to be uniquely true. Theology can also be taught descriptively. Instead of deeming a particular view of God the right view, an instructor or textbook may describe a variety of ways in which people in different times and places have thought about God.

This chapter assumes the second approach—the descriptive one—and therefore carries a plural word as its title, theologies. In this chapter we will explore a multitude of ideas about God held by a variety of Americans throughout American history. In the course of our exploration, we will see how adherents of different religions have embraced different theologies. More than that, we will see how adherents of the same religion have sometimes possessed divergent theologies and how these theologies have changed over time.

In some respects the term theology is not precise enough to describe this chapter’s contents because, literally speaking, it implies thinking about God. Although this implication is appropriate in most cases, some American religions do not include the notion of a singular supreme being, embracing instead the idea of many gods or perhaps no god at all. It will therefore be useful to us to assume a broader definition of theology than the strictly literal one. Throughout this chapter, then, the term theology refers to a particular religion’s notions about the sacred power(s) that control, sustain, and/or give meaning to the universe. Whether that sacred power is one particular God (monotheism), a pantheon of gods (polytheism), or an impersonal force, religious adherents typically believe something about the nature of this power. They also believe something about their position as human beings relative to this power. Indeed, one of the chief concerns of all religious people is to orient themselves appropriately with respect to the powers that maintain the universe. That being the case, our examination of various American theologies will go beyond exploring notions about the sacred powers to examining ideas about the status and obligations of human beings relative to these powers.

As we explore the conceptual differences between America’s various theologies (e.g., one God versus many gods), we will find these theologies taking various forms, shaped for various purposes. For instance, some theologies are formulated by religious leaders with the goal of helping others think orthodox (correct) thoughts about the sacred powers. These formal theologies, devised by people with advanced theological training, are often written down, and they typically reveal a high regard for logical consistency. In other instances, however, theological beliefs are produced by ordinary men and women in the course of their everyday lives. Often called popular theology, this type of theological reflection is rarely written down, and its adherents exhibit relatively little concern for developing belief systems that address every theological problem. Still another form of American theology is civil theology. Most often formulated by political leaders in times of social upheaval, this theological type endeavors to relate current political events to sacred purposes, perhaps even a divine plan.

Whether systematically formulated or informally devised, America’s theologies have shaped the ways in which Americans have thought about themselves as individuals and, in some cases, the way they’ve thought about themselves as a people. This chapter focuses on how Americans, both past and present, have conceived their sacred universes and found their places within them.

Precolonial Era

The diversity of North American religious life is nothing new. Thousands of years before European explorers “discovered” the New World, Native Americans inhabited the landscape. As tribal groups settled in different geographical regions with varying ecologies and climates, their styles of living diverged from one another, as did their religious thoughts and practices. Although pre-Columbian Native Americans did not think in terms of “practicing a religion” or of “having a theology” (notions that are largely European in origin), they exhibited an array of ideas about the sacred powers, as well as humanity’s potential for relating to these powers.

Despite the theological diversity that existed among these precolonial Americans, some commonalities can be identified. For instance, most precolonial Native American religions did not envision a significant divide between the natural and supernatural worlds or between a powerful creator and a subservient created order. To the contrary, Native Americans saw all of the known universe—including the sky, trees, soil, water, and animal life—as endowed with sacred power and sacred significance. At the same time, Native Americans believed that all these powers related to one another and to them, creating a large and all-encompassing kinship network. Sometimes this kinship focus was expressed in explicit phrases, as in the Pueblo Indians’ notion of superhuman Corn Mothers, who, in some primordial age, had given life to all plants and animals. In contrast to the Europeans who would later confiscate their lands, Native Americans understood nature to be more than simply the creation of a supernatural deity. For them, nature was itself sacred and spiritually alive.

In addition to rejecting a separation between the natural and supernatural worlds, most Native Americans possessed myths that explained the origin of the universe and their tribe’s place in it. (In the field of religious studies, the term myth refers to a story about the sacred realm; it should not be interpreted to mean a false account.) Some Native American myths featured mysterious, nonhuman figures who helped bring order to the world or, conversely, sought to bring disorder. One of the most widespread creation myths among Native American tribes was the earth-diver story, in which birds and animals dove to the bottom of a primordial sea to retrieve bits of soil for making dry, inhabitable land. In this case, as in many Native American creation stories, there was no sense of a transcendent God standing over the world and creating the world from nothing. Creation, rather, was a cooperative effort among nature’s inhabitants to fashion something new. Even though Native American creation myths varied from tribe to tribe, most celebrated the power of nature to provide all that was needed for human existence.

Not surprisingly, Native Americans sought above all else to cultivate a harmonious relationship with nature and the powers that animated it. Whether male or female, young or old, Native Americans participated in community rituals that kept the spirit-filled world in order and the spirits themselves satisfied. For instance, the Zuni Indians of Arizona and New Mexico sought blessings for their infants by offering sacrifices of cornmeal to the sun god. In Native American cultures more oriented to hunting, successful hunters offered apologies to animal spirits when these animals were killed. Similarly, they promised the spirits that the slain animal would be fully used, with no parts wasted. Still other Native American rituals revolved around healing and the maintenance of good health. Many Native American tribes had at least one shaman, a person who possessed extraordinary abilities to influence the world with spiritual power. By reciting certain words or dramatizing certain realities, shamans sought to bring diseased persons into harmony with the universe and thereby provide them with newfound strength.

Across the Atlantic Ocean from the North American continent, West Africans (who would soon become American slaves) likewise assembled themselves into discrete tribal groups. Historians have noted certain modes of thinking among West Africans that, according to our definition, constitute a common theology. For instance, most West African groups believed in a High God who had created all things, including the human race. Often associated with the sky, this High God was sometimes considered the parent of other, secondary gods. Whereas the High God demonstrated a removal from the world’s ongoing affairs, the secondary gods were intimately involved with the world. For instance, the sky gods controlled rain, lightning, and thunder; the earth gods controlled fertility and vegetation; and the water gods superintended the rivers and the lakes. Given the impact these lesser gods could have on the world, for good or for ill, West Africans sought regular and repeated contact with them through worship and various forms of sacrifice.

In addition to placating the secondary gods, West Africans sought to maintain healthy relationships with their ancestors. Kinship ties were exceedingly important to West Africans, for these connections continued far beyond death. Indeed, West Africans believed that the spirits of their deceased ancestors lived all around them, granting health to descendants who properly revered them and punishing those who neglected them or violated tribal customs. Religious practices connected West Africans to a host of spiritual powers. For instance, various kinds of magic fostered healing, predicted the future, and, in some cases, brought harm to one’s enemies.

Standing in sharp contrast to the religions of Africa and North America was Christianity, the official religion of Europe in the precolonial era. It shared many theological assumptions with Judaism, including the belief in one God, who created the universe and everything in it. Christianity also maintained Judaism’s belief that humanity, having fallen into sin, was in need of God’s mercy. In the first century C.E., a handful of Jews became convinced that a preacher named Jesus was both God’s son and their long-awaited Messiah (or Christ), who would save them from sin and its terrible consequences. Although Jesus was eventually killed by his enemies, his followers claimed that he rose from the dead and returned to heaven. Early Christians believed that Jesus’ death was propitiatory, appeasing God’s anger toward sinful human beings. Moreover, they asserted that Jesus’ resurrection proved his power over death, securing eternal life for his followers. Over time, Christians came to acknowledge Jesus Christ as a divine being equal with God the Father. Indeed, most Christians throughout history have affirmed the idea that a Trinity of divine beings (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) rules the universe as a unified entity.

In the European nations that would colonize the New World, the long-predominant form of Christianity was Roman Catholicism. In addition to the theological beliefs identified in the previous paragraph, Roman Catholics stressed the importance of the institutional church—including the bishop of Rome (the pope) and the hierarchy of other clergymen beneath him—in mediating the salvation made available through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. According to most Roman Catholic theologians of the time, salvation outside the church was not possible, meaning that ordinary human beings were entirely dependent on the church to provide them with the means to be saved from their sin. These means, also called sacraments, began with infant baptism, a ritual in which a priest sprinkled water on an infant’s head to alleviate the penalty of original sin (inherited sin). For adults, the church provided two other sacraments to heal their sinful souls: the Eucharist, a shared meal of bread and wine that presented the body and blood of Jesus, and penance, the practice of confessing one’s sins to a Catholic priest and performing certain activities assigned by that priest. Much as infant baptism alleviated the penalty of original sin, penance annulled the penalty of actual sin, thereby facilitating the sinner’s entrance into heaven.

Beginning with Martin Luther in 1517, a succession of Christian theological reformers emerged in Europe who contested various aspects of Roman Catholic thought, especially its ideas regarding the church’s role in the salvation process. These theological reformers produced a movement now known as the Reformation, and their spirited protests against the Roman Catholic Church earned them the name “Protestants.” So even as the rulers of Spain, France, and England set out to colonize the New World, they found the dominant religion of the Old World under theological attack from many different quarters.

Colonial North America

As European Christians from different nations and church traditions settled North America, the New World began to exhibit a theological overlay that in some ways mirrored the theological differences that existed in western Europe. With Spanish and French explorers leading the way, the Roman Catholic Church established theological outposts on the North American continent far earlier than Protestants. In fact, when Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492, the beginning of the Protestant Reformation was still twenty-five years in the future. But even as the Roman Catholic Church was establishing itself in the New World—organizing missions in Florida, New Mexico, and other parts of New Spain—Protestant theological reformers were undermining the Roman Catholic theological monopoly in the Old World.

The earliest and most prominent of these Protestant reformers was Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic priest who taught theology at Germany’s Wittenberg University. According to Luther, the Catholic Church had lost sight of Christianity’s most basic tenet: that God granted salvation freely to those who trusted in Jesus Christ to cover their sin with his righteousness. Sola fide, “by faith alone,” became Luther’s theological battle cry, a statement he used to challenge the Roman Catholic notion that doing penance contributed to one’s salvation. When the Catholic Church condemned Luther’s ideas, Luther responded that, in matters of theology, he must ultimately take his cues from the Bible, not the pope. Sola scriptura, “by Scripture alone,” thus became the second pillar of Luther’s theological reform. If Luther was right—if individual Christians could determine theological truth via their own reading of the Bible—the authority of the Roman Catholic Church would be undermined and perhaps erased altogether.

Roman Catholic leaders who feared the consequences of Luther’s new ideas were justifiably concerned, for soon other western European Christians found reasons to assert their theological authority over that of the Catholic Church. Perhaps most unusual in this regard was England’s King Henry VIII, who, for much of his life, was an ardent defender of the Roman Catholic Church and its theology. But in the early 1530s, in the wake of a personal dispute with the pope, Henry pronounced himself the head of the Church of England and placed all of England’s church matters under his authority. From one perspective, the change that Henry engineered was very slight, since the theology of the churches involved did not really change, at least at first. But from another perspective, Henry’s assertion of power was a radical one. With the pope no longer in authority over the Church of England, England’s residents were no longer Roman Catholics but something else.

But what exactly were they? Over the course of the next century—a century during which England would begin to colonize the New World—the Church of England sought to define itself theologically. In contrast to its worship practices, which continued to manifest a very Roman Catholic feel, the Church of England (also called the Anglican Church) embraced certain theological ideas from the European continent that were distinctly Protestant.

Those ideas came from a second-generation Protestant reformer named John Calvin. Although he helped convey Luther’s ideas to other parts of Europe, Calvin formulated a detailed theological system that was distinctly his own. The cornerstone of his theological system was God’s sovereignty (control) over all creation. According to Calvin, absolutely nothing happened in the universe apart from God’s sovereign control, including the salvation of human beings. Indeed, since all human beings were marked by total depravity (utter sinfulness), gaining salvation by their own merit, even their own choice, was entirely impossible. In the latter half of the sixteenth century, Calvin’s theological ideas found favor among many Anglicans, most of whom found ways to combine his distinctive form of Protestant theology with the church’s Catholiclike liturgy. But some Anglicans—the ones most impressed by Calvin’s theology—complained that the Church of England was still too Catholic. These Anglicans soon gained the nickname “puritans,” for more than anything else they wanted to purify the Church of England of its Catholic vestiges.

Like the French and Spanish before them, the English had various motives for colonizing America, many of them nonreligious. For the Puritans, however, theological commitments fueled their appetites for creating a “New England.” The Puritans believed that God worked in the world by establishing covenants (solemn agreements) with groups of people, covenants that promised blessings to groups that lived faithfully to God and judgment to groups that did not. Since the Puritans understood that God had established one of these covenants with the nation of England, they naturally despaired when their fellow Englanders disobeyed God’s commands. Fearing that God’s wrath would soon fall on the Anglican Church and the English nation, some yearned for a place where they could build a Christian commonwealth more pleasing to God. Thus in the 1620s and 1630s ships carrying English Puritans arrived in New England, where, according to a surviving Puritan sermon, they sought to create “a model of Christian charity” for all the world to see. The sermon, delivered aboard an America-bound ship, reflected the Puritans’ beliefs in both covenant blessing and covenant judgment. By keeping their covenant with God, the sermon reminded them, the Puritans could anticipate a long and happy experience in the New World; but if the Puritans failed to uphold their end of the agreement, “we shall surely perish out of this good land.”

Given the theological basis of the Puritans’ colonizing endeavors, it is hardly surprising that the Puritan colonies exceeded all the others in theological training and debate. One of the early debates involved Anne Hutchinson, a well-educated woman who led weekly theological discussions. Hutchinson, it appears, pushed Puritan theology to its logical extreme, arguing that works (pious actions) had absolutely nothing to do with one’s salvation, and she correspondingly accused some Puritan ministers of overemphasizing righteous living. It was difficult for Puritan church leaders to dispute Hutchinson’s claim that salvation came entirely by God’s initiative, but her vigorous dismissal of righteous living threatened to undermine the Puritan goal of building a godly society. In that sense, Hutchinson’s arguments against works exposed a troubling inconsistency in the Puritan theological system, an inconsistency best summarized with this question: How can God’s salvation be an unmerited gift and yet God’s covenant blessings be dependent on the righteous actions of men and women? In the end, Hutchinson was banished from New England. Her experience reveals that New England’s Puritan leaders were far more devoted to strict, Puritan orthodoxy than they were to modern American notions of religious freedom.

Passionate disputes over the nature of true religion continued to plague New England throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even here, in this wellspring of Calvinist theology, many colonists possessed notions about magic that paralleled the folk theologies of Europe and West Africa. In a published sermon entitled “A Discourse on Witchcraft” (1689), minister Cotton Mather complained that some New Englanders found charms, enchantments, and even witchcraft more compelling than good Puritan preaching. But for many New Englanders, who modified their ministers’ theologies as they saw fit, the use of magic was a logical way to secure supernatural protection in a frightening world. In that sense, the magical worldviews of ordinary New Englanders constituted a significant strand of popular theology, a strand most clergy found detestable. Salem’s witch trials, which took place in 1692, betray the magnitude of this sort of belief in Puritan New England. Twenty people lost their lives in Salem, victims of a theologically based legal system that authorized the suppression of witchcraft.

Even as Salem’s witch trials constituted the most intense theological dispute in America’s seventeenth century, the most vigorous theological debates of the eighteenth century pertained to the Great Awakening. The Awakening, a period of heightened religious enthusiasm among America’s Protestant Christians, helped launch the career of Jonathan Edwards, a minister whose church traced its theological roots to the Puritans. Edwards soon rose to prominence as the Awakening’s most able defender, answering critics who denounced its emotional preaching and ecstatic conversions as counterfeit Christianity. In hi...