Author Description

Nearly 40% Of All Americans Have No Connection With Organized Religion. Yet Many Of These People, Even Though They Might Never Step Inside A House Of Worship, Live Profoundly Spiritual Lives. But What Is The Nature And Value Of Unchurched Spirituality In America? Is It A Recent Phenomenon, A New Age Fad That Will Soon Fade, Or A Long-standing And Essential Aspect Of The American Experience? In Spiritual But Not Religious, Robert Fuller Offers Fascinating Answers To These Questions. He Shows That Alternative Spiritual Practices Have A Long And Rich History In America, Dating Back To The Colonial Period, When Church Membership Rarely Exceeded 17% And Interest In Astrology, Numerology, Magic, And Witchcraft Ran High. Fuller Traces Such Unchurched Traditions Into The Mid-nineteenth Century, When Americans Responded Enthusiastically To New Philosophies Such As Swedenborgianism, Transcendentalism, And Mesmerism, Right Up To The Current Interest In Meditation, Channeling, Divination, And A Host Of Other Unconventional Spiritual Practices. Throughout, Fuller Argues That Far From The Flighty And Narcissistic Dilettantes They Are Often Made Out To Be, Unchurched Spiritual Seekers Embrace A Mature And Dynamic Set Of Basic Beliefs. They Focus On Inner Sources Of Spirituality And On This World Rather Than The Afterlife; They Believe In The Accessibility Of God And In The Mind's Untapped Powers; They See A Fundamental Unity Between Science And Religion And An Equality Between Genders And Races; And They Are More Willing To Test Their Beliefs And Change Them When They Prove Untenable. Timely, Sweeping In Its Scope, And Informed By A Clear Historical Understanding, Spiritual But Not Religious Offers Fresh Perspective On The Growing Numbers Of Americans Who Find Their Spirituality Outside The Church.