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Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in America

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There is much good and little to criticize about "Pilgrims." Marty employs a common conceit of pop history, using biographical sketches to transmit historical data. This makes for a very readable book and gives the memory a peg upon which to hang the plethora of information presented. The disadvantage is that historical movements are inavoidably ascribed to a few persons and thereby made two dimensional. This is not, however, so bad in a survey such as this one because the full story of any one movement would not fit.

One is ashamed, having read Marty's book, of having missed almost entirely the religious movements which determined the character of America today to a much greater degree than the posturings of politicians and rhetoriticians. His presentation is balanced and his prejudices only rarely peek through.

Any believer who reads "Pilgrims" will have a better understanding of the peculiar American character of certain aspects of her or his faith. Any non-believer may become stimulated to ask why so many for so long have found life's answers in religious faith - what the common denominator is among the array of ecclesial expressions.

The last chapter of the book - but none of the others - has been made obsolete by time. Current trends are, of course, often ephemeral and guessing which will last is a gamble at best. Much has changed since the 1984 publication date(e.g., the proliferation of mega churches, the snowballing movement among existing Southern Black Baptist congregations to join the Southern Baptist Convention, the massive impact of the Charismatic Renewal on many established Christian religions and the apparent success of Jewish day schools in reversing the loss of particularization among Orthodox and Conservative youth, to name a few examples.)

The book is a great read and a good first exposure to a little known and critical aspect of American life.

For a highly readable and engaging history of religion in America, you can't get much better than Marty. "Pilgrims" is the work of an accomplished scholar who knows how to write history as it should be: an ongoing drama filled with interesting characters moved by varying motivations. All historians, however, let their personal worldviews slip onto the page, and this is the only complaint that I have about Marty. As a liberal Protestant theologian and historian he has a tendency to discredit evangelical theology. This is not so much of a problem when he deals with the great evangelicals of previous centuries (the Francis Asburys and the Jonathan Edwards, for example), but as he approaches the twentieth century he clearly favors the theology of, say, Reinhold Niebuhr or Walter Rauschenbusch over the conversion theology of Billy Graham (perhaps he thinks Jesus' statement that, "you must be born again," applies only to conservative politicians?). This is a minor quibble, however, and one that is to be expected. Marty paints the picture of American religious life as a vivid panorama of people and movements committed, in their own way, to that particularly American brand of the human search for God.

This manuscript is a wonderful history of religion in America. It is a must read for a serious Christian historian. It does however, tend to speak to empathetically about views that are dramatically unorthodox according to established and fundamental Biblical doctrine. However, that said it speaks warmly of the people involved in past and current religious developments and the circumstances which lead to their distinct movements. I recommend this book not for its clear exposition of orthodox Christianity but for its detailing of Christianity's influence in America.

Last spring my pastor asked me to teach an adult level Sunday School class on the history of American Christianity. After consulting with two professors of religious history and considerable library browsing, I settled on this book for reasons on availability and cost, inclusiveness, and the reputation of the author. It has worked exceedingly well, better than I hoped. Marty did occasionally forget to provide basic definitions and overviews, but overall I think this is the best book for any similar class.

This book is a survey of religious development and diversity in the last five hundred years. The author makes strong attempts to portray Christians as racial bigots and full of hatred. Roman Catholic is portrayed as more sympathetic then the Puritans. Glossed over are the drawbacks of Native American beliefs. Martin E. Martin had his biases as any other author. His being the ideas of Post Modern thought. This book is religion as cultural phenomena. Mormonism is dealt with some detail. Mennonites and Amish are subject to less detail. Africa-American and Christian development is slanted towards liberal theology and the Nation of Islam. These things are a matter of editing history to fit a certain perspective: To present Christianity in the United States as racist. The author seems to perceive Fundamentalism as suspicious and stupid while evangelicals are compromisers with the world by avoiding "facts" of science.

The book is an interesting read. The author does present why different faiths did support the Revolutionary war while those of the Episcopal faith did not. A contrast between the religious thought of Thomas Jefferson and Madison to the Federalist. Disputes arising from state supported churches in the United States and those not supported through taxation. Abraham Lincoln is portrayed as someone with little devotion to the Christian Faith, bout great use in his political argument. Al Smith lost by a landslide not because of his Roman Catholicism but his support to repeal prohibition. The author goes into great detail of the religious debate with prohibition and the effect alcohol had on society. Also dealt with is voter determination on Candidates based on religious thought.

The book gives analysis to Darwinism and Christian reaction to his theory how the Universe and Man become into being. He gives some thoughts that accommodated their theology to Darwin arguments and those who did not. The author is more supportive to the former and not the latter. The author also deals with economics and religious beliefs. Union membership or rugged individualism depending on one was Catholic or mainline Protestantism. The author develops philosophers who either promoted agnostics or atheism. Also there is the telling of some strange Christian theology of the past. The ideas are presented even though it had a minor impact then and now in Religious thought today or ever.

In America, most people still consider themselves "religious." In PILGRIMS IN THEIR OWN LAND: 500 YEARS OF RELIGION IN AMERICA Professor Martin E. Marty makes a convincing case for that thesis. Your average American man or woman of religion, Marty argues, is conservative. He belongs to a major denomination imported from Europe -- Judaism or Christianity as reformed or unreformed, but to some extent tinged by the European Enlightenment.

But not all who consider themselves Christians or Jews are members of specific, concrete, organized religious sects. And, taking cues from Benjamin Franklin ("a publick religion"), George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey and other American thinkers, no small number of Americans are for natural religions like Unitarianism or a "public religion" (in which secular American democracy is the preferred broad path for pilgrims to take in their pursuit of the good and the holy).

Granted, yet other Americans are indifferent to or reject religion altogether. Nothing pleases them more than to think of an ideal America in which, yes, there are religions, but they are herded onto irrelevant, impotent social "reservations" and can safely be ignored. Others, like broadcaster Sam Donaldson, see religion as essentially private, personal, subjective, to be kept to oneself, not to intrude into public arenas.

Over 500 pages and in 20 chapters, Martin Marty lays it all out. Americans, by and large, have been notably nomadic, restless with the competing religions all around them to choose from or reject. Americans are on a "ceaseless spiritual pilgrimage ... to find more satisfying faiths and symbols" Ch 15, p. 319). A huge proportion of American religions is driven by the demand side: what can religion X do for ME? If I don't find what makes me happy among the Methodists, well, I can always try Zen Buddhism or theosophy or scientology. Many non-religious people rejoice in Madison's insight that the greatest guarantee of their own freedom is the large number of sects competing in the public arena for members.

American social behavior is influenced by "journalists, poets, literary figures, and agitators" -- as well as by "preachers" (who) "ask people to consider God in their decisions" (Ch. 9, p 132). Even the KKK takes God into consideration when Klansmen swear oaths on bibles.

What a country is religion-drenched America! G. K. Chesterton called it a "nation with the soul of a church." Martin Marty's large tome is fascinating, not terribly demanding but vastly informative and entertaining reading. It can be useful to have one man with one set of perspectives and prejudices pick and choose what to showcase in the gigantic field of religions in America.

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