Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture [Hardcover]

Mark Oppenheimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

What happened to American religion during the cultural revolution of the 1960s and early 1970s? The era has long been associated with the ascendancy of Eastern religions and fringe cults. But in this provocative book, Mark Oppenheimer demonstrates that contrary to conventional wisdom, most Americans did not turn on, tune in and drop out of mainstream religious groups during the Age of Aquarius. Instead, many Americans brought the counterculture with them to their churches and temples, changing the face of American religion. Introducing us to America's first gay ministers and first female priests, to hippie Jews and folk-singing Catholics, Oppenheimer demonstrates that this was an era of extraordinary religious vitality. Drawing on a rich range of archival material as well as interviews with many of the protagonists, "Knocking on Heaven's Door" offers a wry and iconoclastic reappraisal of the ways in which the upheavals of the 1960s changed America's relationship with God.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Many historians have focused ad nauseam on the most extreme religious movements of the 1960s, dissecting these small groups but ignoring larger trends. Oppenheimer, a staff writer for the Christian Century, asks a more provocative question of the 20th century's most radical decade: how did the 1960s influence ordinary people in mainstream religious traditions? As he shows in this competent, accessible study, people in "mainline" religions were deeply and irrevocably changed by the revolutions of the 1960s. (Oppenheimer uses the moniker "the 1960s" to denote a period that includes much of the 1970s, and he is sensitive to the transformations within this brief but tumultuous historical era: 1969, he reminds us at one point, was very different than 1974.) A rather bland opening chapter traces the bloodless revolution that led to the Unitarians' creating an Office of Gay Concerns in the early 1970s, while a second, more compelling, chapter discusses the stunning changes in Roman Catholic worship that resulted from the concurrent forces of Vatican II reforms and the rise of American folk music. Oppenheimer then traces the growth of Jewish havurot-small, communal gatherings of mostly young and urban Jews-and makes a compelling case that these Jews were deeply influenced by observing the Black Panthers, whose example prompted them to self-identify as a proud ethnic minority group. The author next examines the Episcopalians' battles over women's ordination in the 1970s and the responses of progressive Southern Baptists to the Vietnam War. American religion, Oppenheimer persuasively shows, is surprisingly flexible, incorporating dissent and welcoming new ideas.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Much hyped by the media, the cults and communes of the 1960s--with their exotic farragoes of sex, drugs, and Zen mysticism--never merited the attention they received. So argues cultural historian Oppenheimer, who finds the real story of '60s religion not among the relatively few devotees of psychedelic gurus but rather among the millions belonging to previously staid religious denominations. These denominations, Oppenheimer shows, responded to the turmoil of the era with startling and permanent changes in their forms of worship and in the character of their clergy. Thus, Episcopalians acceded to feminist demands by ordaining women; Unitarians permitted gay activists to receive church funding; Catholics abandoned Latin and discovered the guitar; Jews left the synagogue to pray in their living rooms--or in the woods. While he sees a loosening of discipline throughout American religion during the '60s, Oppenheimer perceptively distinguishes between, for instance, the aesthetic acceptance of countercultural reform in Catholic liturgy, on the one hand, which left traditional metaphysical and moral doctrines intact, and the thoroughgoing counterculturalism in Unitarianism, on the other hand, which opened the sanctuary to self-identified pagans and amoralists. As the country's metamorphosed religious communities continue to weigh in on diverse social issues, readers will turn to this book for context and understanding. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300100248
• ISBN-13: 978-0300100242
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,457,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Oppenheimer writes for the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Slate, the Forward, and Tablet. He teaches English and political science at Yale, where he is the director of the Yale Journalism Initiative. The author of two previous books and a founding editor of the New Haven Review (newhavenreview.com), Mark lives with his family in New Haven, Connecticut. For more information, please check his website at markoppenheimer.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Counterculture challenges conformity, July 29, 2004

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture (Hardcover)

Oppenheimer has examined an almost entirely ignored niche of modern United States' history. While the 1960's - the "Nixon Era" as Oppenheimer labels it, is usually portrayed with anti-war protests, the "drug culture" and alternate lifestyles, the author discerned another aspect. In this compelling analysis, the activities of American religions are brought to light. The author selected the five major faiths to examine whether the :counterculture" of the sixties had an impact. In what sense, he asks, were these religions modified and how meaningful were the changes? What were the changes proposed and how did these faiths respond to them? The answers are surprising.

Churches are a major factor in United States society. Oppenheimer begins with some interesting numbers of church membership. He also describes the differences across the various faiths - his description of the history and development of the Southern Baptists is particularly enlightening. He portrays how elements of the counterculture forced the faiths to reassess their outlook of community relations. Every organised religion contains its conservative and reform elements. Oppenheimer describes the reform challenges to the Unitarians, Roman Catholics, Jews, Episcopalians and Southern Baptists. Each religion faced particular provocations to its established norm. Each resolved these movements in a different way. He demonstrates, for example, how Roman Catholics had an impetus for change from Vatican II, with unexpected results. Gay rights, feminism and new religious communities become significant issues. Only among the Southern Baptists was Viet Nam the topic of dispute, and Oppenheimer's description of the methods employed makes compelling reading. Still, he concludes the foundation of the counterculture's impact on United States' religions lies elsewhere, as he points out in his conclusion.

The author has combined some in-depth research with interviews of the participants, newspaper and magazine stories to fully personalise this account. Amazingly, no mention is made of the song of the title! Photographs of events and some of the leading figures add some nuance, but aren't very informative. Written in an almost rollicking style, the book is well drafted for the general reader. It should inform many on why their particular faith is operating as it is today. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

5.0 out of 5 stars Educational? Yes. Dull? No., November 21, 2003

By 

Michelle Solomon (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture (Hardcover)

I'm shockingly ignorant about Christian sects and religious history, not to mention my own Jewish background. Oppenheimer's book sparked interesting conversations with my fiance, who was raised going to Catholic folk mass, joined an evangelical group in high school, and then was part of a Unitarian congregation in his early 20's. I had known nothing about these movements, and the book gave me a window into a world that I'm usually separated from. Besides being a great topic for cocktail parties (people don't talk about religion enough), the book is scholarly and meticulously researched, with dozens of interviews with people who were influential in or lived through the religious changes that were a product of 60's counterculture.