Self-Help and Popular Religion in Modern American Culture: An Interpretive Guide (American Popular Culture)

The second of two volumes on the relationship between popular religion and the self-help tradition in American culture, this book continues chronologically where the first left off. As with the first volume, this work focuses on the intersection of American history and popular religion and is intended as an introductory interpretive guide to major self-help figures and movements with origins in popular religious movements. This volume spans from Romanticism, the Gilded Age, and the history of Christian Science, with discussions of Mary Baker Patterson, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, and Mary Baker Eddy, through Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller. Peale and Schuller, with the exception of Evangelist Billy Graham, constitute the public face of mainstream American Protestantism and bring this two-volume study to its conclusion in the second half of the 20th century.This reference will serve as a valuable research tool for American religion and popular culture scholars. Together with the first volume,__Self-Help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture__, these two meticulously researched volumes clearly define and present the broad scope of the self-help tradition as it pervades American culture and as it developed and was influenced by popular religion. An extensive bibliography is included. 1. Introduction -- 2. Romanticism, The Gilded Age, And The History Of Christian Science. Academic Historians And Christian Science -- Cultural Change In Late-nineteenth-century America -- Intellectual Challenges To Religious Orthodoxy -- Faith, Medicine, Anomie, And Maladies -- The Early Life And Troubled Times Of Mary Baker Eddy -- Mary Baker Patterson's Search For Healing -- Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Mind-cure, And Christian Science -- Beginning A Church -- Fighting A Mental Enemy -- Dissent Within -- Toward The Mother Church -- Last Years : Retirement And Consolidation -- After Eddy : The Church Of Christ, Scientist -- The Theology Of Mary Baker Eddy -- The Popular Appeal Of Mary Baker Eddy And Christian Science -- 3. The Power Of Positive Thought : Norman Vincent Peale. The Life And Career Of Norman Vincent Peale -- The Power Of Positive Thinking -- Aftermath : Controversy And Popularity -- Contemporary Critical Reaction To The Message Of Norman Vincent Peale -- Criticism Goes Mainstream -- A Voice In Defense -- The Continuing Debate -- Another Apology, And Attack -- After The Controversy : Post-1950s Analyses -- General Histories Of American Religion On Peale -- 4. An Heir To Peale : Robert Schuller And A Career Of Possibility Thinking. Schuller On Television And In Books -- Years Of Success -- The Controversy Over Schuller : Conservatives And Liberals Dispute -- Academic Examinations Of Robert Schuller. Roy M. Anker. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [173]-187) And Index. The second of two volumes on the relationship between popular religion and the self-help tradition in American culture, this book continues chronologically where the first left off. As with the first volume, this work focuses on the intersection of American history and popular religion and is intended as an introductory interpretive guide to major self-help figures and movements with origins in popular religious movements. This volume spans from Romanticism, the Gilded Age, and the history of Christian Science, with discussions of Mary Baker Patterson, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, and Mary Baker Eddy, through Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller. Peale and Schuller, with the exception of Evangelist Billy Graham, constitute the public face of mainstream American Protestantism and bring this two-volume study to its conclusion in the second half of the 20th century. This reference will serve as a valuable research tool for American religion and popular culture scholars. Together with the first volume, Self-Help and Popular Religion in Early American Culture , these two meticulously researched volumes clearly define and present the broad scope of the self-help tradition as it pervades American culture and as it developed and was influenced by popular religion. An extensive bibliography is included. The second of two volumes on the relationship between popular religion and the self-help tradition in American culture, this book continues chronologically and spans from Romanticism and the Gilded Age through Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller.