Knowledge and Belief in America: Enlightenment Traditions and Modern Religious Thought

The Enlightenment values of individual autonomy, democracy, and reason conflict with the religious traditions of community, authority, and traditional learning. Yet in American history the two heritages have been intertwined since the colonial era. This volume unites the work of theologians, historians, literary critics, and philosophers to explore the interaction between Enlightenment ideals and American religion. The essays focus on the Enlightenment’s effect on the major religious traditions and explore religion in the thinking of such representative figures as Edwards, Emerson, Lincoln, Santayana, Stevens and Eliot.