History of American Religion, 1865 to Present will consider the varieties of American religious experience while keeping in mind the importance of pluralism in the U.S. context.
Mostly from Chapter 8 and the Epilogue
I have to say that I derived great pleasure from reading this book, and I imagine that Jill Watts must have had an equally good time researching it and writing it. I found myself chuckling throughout, rooting for Father Divine and his followers as their movement grew [...]
These two chapters are focused on Father Divine and his groups encounter with the Sayville Community in Suffolk County. Father Divine’s move to Suffolk County can be attributed to variety of reasons. One reason was opportunistic, as a German-American in Sayville was being harassed due to the World War I created tension between Americans and [...]
For class discussion of the Preface and Chapter 1
When reading Jill Watts’ “God, Harlem, USA” I was constantly reminded of Higginbotham’s “ Righteous Discontent”. Admittedly the narratives of these two books cover different periods, different circumstances and different motives but two common themes run through both of them. First, the need for the African-American community [...]
In chapters 6 and 7, Watts depicts what seemed to be the high point of Father Divine’s influence, which began ironically with him being sentenced to a year in jail, and the judge who sentenced him dying of a heart attack within a few days of the harsh sentencing (98). This is one of several [...]