A Review of A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion by Catherine L. Albanese, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008, 640 pp., $22.50.
For most Americans (and for the vast majority of people across the world), religious affiliation plays a significant role in both self definition and social networks. Adherence to a particular faith presupposes commitment to a shared set of beliefs, rituals, values and morals, and frequently, allegiance to like-minded co-religionists. Such commitments and allegiances have implications…