American Religious Leaders

by Hall, Timothy L.

• ISBN13: 9780816045341
• ISBN10: 0816045348
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Facts on File

Summary

Profiles the lives and achievements of more than 270 spiritual leaders, arranged alphabetically, who made major contributions to the history of American religious life.

Author Biography

Timothy L. Hall holds a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, has done graduate work in religious studies at Rice University, and holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Houston. He is a professor of law, specializing in constitutional law with a focus on church/state issues. He is currently a professor at the University of Mississippi Law School and director of the law school's summer program in Cambridge, England. Hall is also presently serving as interim associate provost of the University of Mississippi. He has taught at the University of Texas School of Law

Table of Contents

Note on Photos	vi
List of Entries	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	xiii
A to Z Entries	1	(397)
Glossary	398	(6)
Bibliography and Recommended Sources	404	(6)
Entries by Religious Affiliation	410	(3)
Entries by Year of Birth	413	(4)
Index	417

Excerpts

American Religious Leaders traces the history of American religion through the lives of its leaders. More than 250 entries explore America's religious and spiritual leaders from colonial times to today. The book focuses on those who have occupied the spotlight of historical attention in one way or another: the founders, the pioneers, the heretics, and the saints, among others. All have summoned some measure of historical interest and left some record, either through journals and autobiographies of their own or through biographies written by others.
Notable figures and leaders from many of the major churches and religious groups in America are covered, including Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, Black Muslims, Jews, and Mormons along with leaders from smaller and lesser-known but no less important religions. They have established schools, founded humanitarian and social welfare organizations, led movements concerned with social equality and civil rights, and proceeded to voice economic, political, and social ideas based on their commitment to their respective religions and the beliefs of their followers. Broadly inclusive, this volume profiles many women, Native Americans, African Americans, and leaders from other traditionally underrepresented groups within American society.
Profiles include:
James Lloyd Breck: Episcopal missionary
Edgar Cayce: psychic
Dorothy Day: cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement
Louis Farrakhan: Nation of Islam leader
Henry Highland Garnet: Presbyterian minister, abolitionist
Anne Hutchinson: Puritan lay leader
Pat Robertson: founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network
Joseph Smith III: president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Smohalla: Native American prophet, founder of the Dreamer Religion
Francis Joseph Spellman: Catholic cardinal.