The Delight Makers: Anglo-American Metaphysical Religion and the Pursuit of Happiness

An ambitious history of desire in Anglo-American religion across three centuries.

The pursuit of happiness weaves disparate strands of Anglo-American religious history together. In The Delight Makers, Catherine L. Albanese unravels a theology of desire tying Jonathan Edwards to Ralph Waldo Emerson to the religiously unaffiliated today. As others emphasize redemptive suffering, this tradition stresses the "metaphysical" connection between natural beauty and spiritual fulfillment. In the earth's abundance, these thinkers see an expansive God intent on fulfilling human desire through prosperity, health, and sexual freedom. Through careful readings of Cotton Mather, Andrew Jackson Davis, William James, Esther Hicks, and more, Albanese reveals how a theology of delight evolved alongside political overtures to natural law and individual liberty in the United States.

Author: Catherine L. Albanese
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 01/17/2023
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.83d
ISBN13: 9780226823546
ISBN10: 0226823547
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | History
- Religion | Christianity | General
- Philosophy | Metaphysics

About the Author
Catherine L. Albanese is J. F. Rowny Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of numerous books, including A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion.