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Cyrus Teed was a charismatic and controversial guru who at the age of thirty had been "illuminated" by an angel in his electro-alchemical laboratory. At the turn of the twentieth century, surrounded by the marvels of the Second Industrial Revolution, he proclaimed himself a prophet and led 200 people out of Chicago and into a new age. Or so he promised. The Koreshans settled in a mosquito-infested scrubland and set to building a communal utopia...

A groundbreaking new look at the story of America.
At the heart of the nation's spiritual history are audacious and often violent scenes. But the Puritans and the shining city on the hill give us just one way to understand the United States. Rather than recite American history from a Christian vantage point, Peter Manseau proves that what really happened is worth a close, fresh look.
Thomas Jefferson himself collected books on all...

Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age is a superb introduction to the principal Western religions and their philosophical counterparts from the beginnings of Alexander the Great's empire in 331 B.C.E. to the emergence of the Christian world in the fourth century C. E. Anton?a Tripolitis, a noted scholar of Late Antiquity, examines the rise of the Hellenistic-Roman world and presents a comprehensive overview of its beliefs and practices, their socio-psychological...

Looks at the trends and ramifications of a country increasingly leaving organized religion behind, focusing on how this growing number of nonreligious Americans find meaning, purpose, and community.

Stollznow lifts the veil on strange and unusual religious beliefs and practices in the modern-day United States. From the Amish to Voodoo, the beliefs in this book may be unorthodox-- and often dangerous-- but they are always fascinating.

After writing Proof of Heaven, Dr. Eben Alexander heard from the thousands affected by his story. He studied what the world's religious traditions and philosophers have said about the soul's survival of death, often surprised that those voices were in synch. Part metaphysical detective story, part manual for living, The Map of Heaven explores our spiritual history and the birth of modern science, showing how we forgot, and are now at last remembering,...

"Following up on his two recent, widely acclaimed studies of ancient Israelite history and society, William Dever here reconstructs the practice of religion in ancient Israel from the bottom up. Archaeological excavations reveal numerous local and family shrines where sacrifices and other rituals were carried out. Intrigued by this "folk religion" in all its variety and vitality, Dever writes about ordinary people in ancient Israel and their everyday...

Shares information on messianic prophets in United States history, including Cyrus Teed, Father Divine, and Jim Jones.

This landmark book traces the history of belief in the Christian West from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, revealing for the first time how a distinctively modern category of belief came into being. Ethan Shagan focuses not on what people believed, which is the normal concern of Reformation history, but on the more fundamental question of what people took belief to be. Shagan shows how religious belief enjoyed a special prestige in medieval...