In his sweeping portrayal of religious expression and identity, both traditional and non-traditional, in the United States from post-World War II through the tragic events of September 11, 2001, author Patrick Allitt depicts the varied transformative nature of the American religious experience juxtaposed against the evolving ecclesiastical, social and cultural climate of the mid to late twentieth century. A great deal of his narrative is reminiscent of the subject matter we have read and discussed, (Higginbotham, McGreevy, Marsden, Orsi, Oppenheimer, Moore and others), while phenomona like the American Expression of Islam(NOI), New Religions, “cults” and Environmental Spitituality among others, are introduced as further manifestation of America’s unique ability to weave spiritual expression and meaning within its own religious lanscape.
I did feel however, while reading Allitt’s work, that I was immersed in a primer, and therefore, cursory, presentation of the American religious experience of the time. I many times thought the author either glossed over or dismissed several important facets of conventional religious expression while focusing more on superflous rationale for alternative expressions anchored in either personal faith or conviction. In fairness to the author though, I think the task of attempting to thoroughly, completely and accurately portray the American religious experience in the last half of the twentieth century daunting at best. This particular work was not designed, I believe, to foot that bill. As Allitt states in his introduction, his book is intended to be a general introduction to the American religious experience in the latter part of the last century. He directs the reader interested in more detailed information to the myriad number of extant works on the subject matter. He also readily admits that he has developed and detailed his discussion of some faith expressions and convictions at the expense of others.
Though his work is neither entirely comprehensive nor penetrating, Allitt accomplishes his stated goal of providing a general overview of the evolving and transformative nature of the American religious experience in the final fifty years of the twentieth century.