Spirits of Protestantism

This exciting work offers an innovative analysis of the politics of body, mind, and spirit among North American liberal Protestants over the course of the twentieth century. Pamela Klassen shows how a global array of healing therapies, such as telepathy and yoga found their way into Protestant practice. Liberal Protestants of the early decades sought to convert "the heathen" by combining modern medicine with evangelism in Christian missions that were both scientific and imperialistic. By the century's end they viewed this "healing mission" as pathological both politically and therapeutically. Klassen shows how Protestant encounters with a variety of bodily therapies helped them to cultivate a new "supernatural liberalism" in which religious difference was to be celebrated, not obliterated. At a time when the political and anthropological significance of Christianity is being hotly debated, Spirits of Protestantismforcefully argues for a reconsideration of the historical legacies and cultural effects of liberal Protestantism, even for the anthropology of religion itself.