originally published 5/1/2007
Early American history was suffused with a variety of fervent religious experimentations, from alchemy and astrology to the Transcendentalists’ intuitive knowledge. Catherine Albenese is professor and chair of the department of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and has written A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. She describes this “metaphysical religion” as progressive and democratic, unlike the often overused term “gnosticism” which in its ancient sense was too elitist to fit the American way. Stemming from experimentation in such things as magic and numerology, this metaphysical awareness lives on today in many forms, including aura healing, acupuncture, and the quest for spiritual energy.
14 minutes
PREVIEW
The player for the full version of this Feature is only available to current members. If you have an active membership, log in here. If you’d like to become a member — with access to all our audio programs — sign up here.
Related reading and listening
- What hath “manifest destiny” wrought? — Daniel Walker Howe on the eschatological imagination that encouraged American expansion
- Post-Christian America and the “unlimited technological future” — George Parkin Grant on technology and the Puritan legacy of “unflinching wills”
- Recognizing the Puritan flavor of “America” — George McKenna on the originally theocentric vision for the American vocation
- Progress and God’s providence in American history — Historians Daniel Walker Howe and George McKenna explain religious understandings of God’s purpose for America in the 19th century and colonial era, respectively. (34 minutes)
- The theological significance of current events —
FROM VOL. 65 George Marsden discusses how Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) understood world history and the American experience. (14 minutes) - Countering American apathy toward history —
FROM VOL. 124 Historian John Fea discusses how American and Protestant individualism continues to influence our orientation toward the past. (22 minutes) - “Detachment as a whole way of life” —
FROM VOL. 85 Professor Christopher Shannon discusses how early twentieth-century social scientists encouraged the American idea that individual identity works against communal membership. (17 minutes) - Paradoxical attitudes toward plastic — Jeffrey Meikle traces the technological, economic, and cultural development of plastic and relates it to the American value of authenticity. (15 minutes)
- From shadows to the light of reality —
FROM VOL. 153 Louis Markos argues that Plato needs to be recognized for his unique and serendipitous role in preparing the world for Christ. (24 minutes) - The roots of American disorder — In this reading of an article from 2021 by Michael Hanby, the critique of Marxism in Augusto del Noce’s work is compared with texts from the American Founders. (79 minutes)
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 162 — FEATURED GUESTS: Mark Noll, R. Jared Staudt, Paul Weston, William C. Hackett, Hans Boersma, and David Paul Baird
- “Muscular Christianity” and sport as language — In light of this summer’s Olympic Games, we present two sports-related archive interviews: Clifford Putney on Protestant emphasis on fitness at the turn of the 19th century; and Andrei S. Markovits on Americans and soccer. (23 minutes)
- America’s not-so-Christian past — In a conversation from 2012, historian John Fea discusses the idea of America as a Christian nation. (27 minutes)
- How the truth finds itself when confronted with error — Hans Urs von Balthasar on the intense radiance emanating from the writings of St. Irenaeus as he confronted heresies
- Our bodies, our selves — Douglas Farrow on the insistence of St. Irenaeus that the Ascension of Christ means that our bodies — not just our souls — are beneficiaries of redemption
- From democracy to bureaucracy — Historian John Lukacs on the challenges of living at the End of an Age
- Ideas and historical consequences — Historian John Lukacs (1924–2019) discusses the relationship between institutions and character, popular sentiment versus public opinion, the distinction between patriotism and nationalism, and the very nature of studying history. (36 minutes)
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 156 — FEATURED GUESTS: Kimbell Kornu, Paul Tyson, Mark Noll, David Ney, William C. Hackett, and Marian Schwartz
- “Christianity” is gnostic — Peter Leithart on why what the Church is and practices is not a “religion”
- The evolving connotation of “Christianity” — William Cantwell Smith on how the abstraction known as “Christianity” displaced the concrete reality of “Christian living”
- The birth of “religion” — Brent Nongbri on how Christian disunity led to the privatization of God and the gods
- The scantily clad public square — Reinhard Hütter on the necessity of the virtue of religion
- The reality that science cannot see — Philosopher Paul Tyson illustrates features of daily life that science cannot “see,” such as love, friendship, justice, and hope, and argues that such things are nonetheless real. (20 minutes)
- Fairy tales and what’s really real — Anna Maria Mendell describes how fairy stories can use the device of magic to call attention to the real nature of things. (13 minutes)
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 131 — FEATURED GUESTS: John Durham Peters, Paul Heintzman, Richard Lints, Peter Harrison, Francis J. Beckwith, David L. Schindler, and Nicholas J. Healy, Jr.
- Not just other-worldly concerns — William Cavanaugh on the “religionization” of Christianity
- Is religion just moralistic therapy after all? — Alexander Schmemann on the secularization of religion
- How science became the omnipotent arbiter of genuine knowledge — Peter Harrison on the creation of an allegedly neutral public sphere
- The Church as a public reality — William Cavanaugh on how we must be disciples in public, not just citizens
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 111 — FEATURED GUESTS: Siva Vaidhyanathan, John Fea, Ross Douthat, Ian Ker, Larry Woiwode, and Dana Gioia
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 101 — FEATURED GUESTS: James Davison Hunter, Paul Spears, Steven Loomis, James K. A. Smith, Thomas Long, and William T. Cavanaugh
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 91 — FEATURED GUESTS: John Witte, Jr., Hugh Brogan, Daniel Ritchie, Daniel Walker Howe, George McKenna, and Patrick Deneen
- Stronger than death — Alan Jacobs and Mark Shea defend the portrayal of magic in the Harry Potter books.
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 87 — FEATURED GUESTS: John Witte, Jr., Steven Keillor, Philip Bess, Scott Cairns, and Anthony Esolen
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 86 — FEATURED GUESTS: Roger Lundin, Lawrence Buell, Harold K. Bush, Jr., Katherine Shaw Spaht, Steven L. Nock, Norman Klassen, and Jens Zimmermann
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 85 — FEATURED GUESTS: C. John Sommerville, Catherine Albanese, Christopher Shannon, Michael G. Lawler, Gilbert Meilaender, and Matthew Dickerson
- An ancient modern confusion — Ken Myers offers a brief primer on the heresy of Gnosticism
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 48 — FEATURED GUESTS: Jon Butler, Gary Cross, Zygmunt Bauman, Pico Iyer, Richard Stivers, Larry Woiwode, Alan Jacobs, and James Trott
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 40 — FEATURED GUESTS: Joseph Epstein, John Gray, Kenneth R. Craycraft, Jr., William T. Pizzi, Pamela Walker Laird, Albert Borgmann, Neal Stephenson, and Alan Jacobs
- Best-Selling Spirituality — In the late 1990s, three best-selling books outlined new “religious preferences” for many Americans: The Celestine Prophecy, Embraced by the Light, and Conversations with God. Why were they popular?
- Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 20 — FEATURED GUESTS: Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Roger Lundin, Wilfred McClay, Andrew A. Tadie, Robert Jenson, Ted Prescott, and Ted Libbey