The Fifties' Spiritual Marketplace: American Religion in a Decade of Conflict - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081352346X ISBN 13: 9780813523460

Publisher: Rutgers University Press, 1997

Synopsis

This narrative interrogates the notion of the fifties as an era of normalcy. Ellwood explores the Catholic-Protestant tensions, the conflict between theology and popular faith, and the underground forms of religiosity, and argues that the decade was actually full of spiritual strife.

About this title

From the Author:

My comments on my book are as follows:
It was the first full post-war and post-depression decade, a decade we often look upon with nostalgia, but for those who were there a time of anxiety and confusion as well as (for some) unprecedented affluence. For America's religions, particularly the famous "three faiths" -- Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism -- the 1950s were a time of building and growth, of theologians and preachers who were household names, and of the last years of pre-Vatican II style Roman Catholicism. Yet for the thoughtful people religion in the Fifties was full of problems and paradoxes: in years of seeming spiritual abundance, they were asking how churches and temples should respond to communism and the cold war, to McCarthyism and Korea, to troubled young people and to the rising racial crisis. And of course there were nonconformist spiritual responses: the "Beats" and existentialists, the pacifists and Ayn Rand "objectivists."

In this book I try to present in a balanced way the broad panorama of Fifties religion, from a look at the life of grassroots parishes, to the response of religious leaders to the various crises of the decade, to the Beat and off-beat spiritualities. Forget the stereotypes of the decade and of Fifties religion: it was an immensely varied, conflicted, exciting, and -- yes -- atypical period. Join me in an exploration of its spiritual intricacies in this book. And I'd like to know what you think of it.

Robert Ellwood

From the Back Cover:

If you still hold the notion that the fifties were the 'good old days, ' blessed with incomparable social affluence and widespread family unity, all buttressed by a strong, unconflicted spirituality, then look again. In this compelling narrative of religion in a decade still embraced by an indefatigable nostalgia, Robert Ellwood interrogates the notion of the fifties as an era of normalcy, and it proves it to be full of spiritual strife.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 081352346X
• ISBN 13: 9780813523460
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250