Lived Religion in America

Toward a History of Practice

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Edited by David D. Hall

Princeton University Press

Due/Published December 1997, 254 pages, paper

ISBN 0691016739

"A fascinating collection that graphically demonstrates how participants become subtle theologians of 'lived religion' in America, from Ojibway hymn-singing to rustic homesteading and the 'Women's Aglow' movement."--John Butler, Yale UniversityAt once historically and theoretically informed, these essays invite the reader to think of religion dynamically, reconsidering American religious history in terms of practices that are linked to specific social contexts. The point of departure is the concept of "lived religion." Discussing such topics as gift exchange, cremation, hymn- singing, and women's spirituality, a group of leading sociologists and historians of religion explore the many facets of how people carry out their religious beliefs on a daily basis. As David Hall notes in his introduction, a history of practices "encompasses the tensions, the ongoing struggle of definition, that are constituted within every religious tradition and that are always present in how people choose to act. Practice thus suggests that any synthesis is provisional."The volume opens with two essays by Robert Orsi and DaniSle Hervieu-L,ger that offer an overview of the rapidly growing study of lived religion, with Hervieu-L,ger using the Catholic charismatic renewal movement in France as a window through which to explore the coexistence of regulation and spontaneity within religious practice. Anne S. Brown and David D. Hall examine family strategies and church membership in early New England. Leigh Eric Schmidt looks at the complex meanings of gift-giving in America. Stephen Prothero writes about the cremation movement in the late nineteenth century. In an essay on the narrative structure of Mrs. Cowman's Streams in the Desert, Cheryl Forbes considers the devotional lives of everyday women. Michael McNally uses the practice of hymn-singing among the Ojibwa to reexamine the categories of native and Christian religion. In essays centering on domestic life, Rebecca Kneale Gould investigates modern homesteading as lived religion while R. Marie Griffith treats home-oriented spirituality in the Women's Aglow Fellowship. In "Golden- Rule Christianity," Nancy Ammerman talks about lived religion in the American mainstream.

Review

This collection brings together some of the foremost scholars on religion as they focus on the dynamics of religion practice. "Lived Religion," brings together aspects of the sociological tradition of focusing on the community, ritual studies and the cultural or symbolic anthropology associated with Clifford Geertz. Taken as a whole the essays suggest new ways of conceiving and understanding religion in America that "encompasses the tensions, the ongoing struggle of definition, that are constituted within every religious tradition and that are always present in how people choose to act. Practice thus suggests that any synthesis is provisional." The essays, which look at a wide variety of religious tradition in America, include: "Everyday Miracles: The Study of Lived Religion" by Robert Orsi; "'What Scripture Tells Me'": Spontaneity and Regulation with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal" by Danièle Hervieu-Léger; "Family Strategies and Religious Practice: Baptism and the Lord's Supper in Early New England" by Anne S. Brown and David D. Hall; "Practices of Exchange: From Market Culture to Gift Economy in the Interpretation of American Religion" by Leigh Eric Schmidt; "Lived Religion and the Dead: The Cremation Movement in Gilded Age America" by Stephen Prothero; "Coffee, Mrs. Cowman, and the Devotional Life of Women Reading in the Desert" by Cheryl Forbes; "The Uses of Ojibwa Hymn-Singing at White Earth: Toward a History of Practice" by Michael McNally; "Submissive Wives, Wounded Daughters, and Female Soldiers: Prayer and Christian Womanhood in Women's Aglow Fellowship" by R. Marie Griffith; "Golden Rule Christianity: Lived Religion in the American Mainstream" by Nancy T. Ammerman; "Getting (Not Too) Close to Nature; Modern Homesteading as Lived Religion in America" by Rebecca Kneale Gould.