Body of Faith

A Biological History of Religion in America

Fuller Robert C.

The postmodern view that human experience is constructed by language and culture has informed historical narratives for decades. Yet newly emerging information about the biological body now makes it possible to supplement traditional scholarly models with insights about the bodily sources of human thought and experience".The Body of Faith" is the first account of American religious history to highlight the biological body. Robert C. Fuller brings a crucial new perspective to the study of American religion, showing that knowledge about the biological body deeply enriches how we explain dramatic episodes in American religious life. Fuller shows that the body's genetically evolved systems – pain responses, sexual passion, and emotions like shame and fear – have persistently shaped the ways that Americans forge relationships with nature, to society, and to God. The first new work to appear in the Chicago History of American Religion series in decades, "The Body of Faith" offers a truly interdisciplinary framework for explaining the richness, diversity, and endless creativity of American religious life.

About the Author

Robert C. Fuller is the Caterpillar Professor of Religious Studies at Bradley University. He has published a dozen books, including "Spiritual, but Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America", "Wonder: From Emotion to Spirituality", and "Spirituality in the Flesh: Bodily Sources of Religious Experience".

Reviews

"What would a history of American religion look like if it were grounded in a shared human biology, in the genetics, hormones, sexual organs, bilateral structures, and sensorium of the human body? That is precisely what Robert C. Fuller gives us in 'The Body of Faith'. I was deeply inspired and moved by it" – Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of "Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred"

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