History of American Religion, 1865 to Present

My brief note on Allitt is about the section on radical theology in chapter 4.  I hadn’t realized Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the progenitor of radicalism, but I found the ideas of the theologians as presented by Allitt to be quite interesting.  In Allitt’s description, it seems almost postmodern Christianity:  ”…the concept of “God” and such phrases as “Jesus is Lord,” when illuminated by the harsh light of modern philosophical language analysis, lost their ancient meaning” (73). Another interesting facet of radical theology was how of its times it seemed to be.  This can be seen in the faith of theologians such as Altizer and Hamilton in modern technology and science — in general, the belief that science was “speeding up the rate of history itself” (74).  Finally, Peter Berger’s A Rumor of Angels seemed a fascinating synthesis of radical and traditional philosophy — a reconciling of the two. I found the book in general to be, as Allitt undoubtedly intended,  a breezy survey of a huge topic.  It certainly fulfills its purpose as a useful survey for an undergraduate class.  I wonder what those class members who have at times during the semester craved more context in the monographs we have read think about Allitt’s book?  Would this sort of surface survey be the result of too much context?  Finally, a brief note about editing.  How is it possible that Robert Oppenheimer, one of the most prominent American scientists who ever lived — a scientist who was almost as influential in the larger culture in his time as Einstein had been earlier — is mis-named as “J. Philip Oppenheimer” on the first page of the text?  How did someone not catch this?  Just asking. 

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