Book Review: Pilgrims In Their Own Land

In Pilgrims in Their Own Land ¹ Martin Marty catalogs the history of religion in the United States. Marty traces the pilgrimage of immigrants to American soil while paying close attention to their religious beliefs and practices. After examining each group’s religious beliefs, he then explores the interplay between new beliefs and those that were previously existing. Marty also observes the various new ideas and aberrations which Americans have contributed to religion.

As a professor of the History of Modern Christianity at the University of Chicago and the author of numerous books, Martin Marty is very qualified to write on the subject of religion in America. He views the population of the United States to be on a continuous religious pilgrimage, in which potential religious choices increase with the arrival of each new immigrant. Although Marty seems to conclude that these religious choices will continuously increase, he offers four broad categories under which the history of most religious expression in America may be placed. While these four categories are by no means exhaustive, they provide the necessary handles one requires in order to grasp the rich tapestry of America’s religious identity. These four categories are Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, and secular humanism.

The major player in the religious history of America is Protestantism. The profound and lasting influence the Puritans have had on all those who have followed is difficult to overstate. While American Protestants have all acknowledged a regard for the Holy Scriptures, they have differed widely in practice and their allowance for diversity of viewpoints. This has caused many new sects to form as new opinions have advanced and new practices have gained credence. This fragmentation is exemplified by the Disciples of Christ who, in their search for primitive Christianity, effectively divided the church more by providing yet another choice from which religious pilgrims might choose. There were others who initially sought to return to the primitive roots of Christianity but founded whole new faiths instead which were unrecognizable to orthodox Christians. Among those claiming revelations equal or superior to the Christian scriptures were the Mormons, Adventists, and Christian Scientists. Also, Transcendentalists like Thoreau and Emerson who sought to simplify religion created their own (262).

Throughout his book Marty conveys two themes regarding American Protestantism. First, he shows how Protestantism has been dominant in shaping religious thought since the beginning of the United States. Second, he reveals how American Protestantism has constantly been required to reevaluate itself as it has been forced to deal with the new notions of immigrants from without and innovators from within American society. According to Marty, America has said, in effect, to immigrants, “Well, we guess you are going to stay and we guess you are more or less welcome — but you have to change” (271).

While continual fragmentation of American Protestantism has made it hard to follow each variant, three general trends can be discerned. First, American Evangelical beliefs have remained remarkably close to their Puritan forefathers. Second, liberal theologies within mainline Protestantism have produced a type of religious expression that, from time to time, is not only different from its ancestor but openly hostile to it. Third, American Protestantism has produced a wide panoply of cults whose claims have led many away from Christian faith and practice.

The second broad category of American religious history is Catholicism. Catholicism was the first form of Christianity to be introduced on American soil. After Columbus and the Conquistadores came Jesuits who were genuinely interested in the salvation of the native Americans. Due to political differences and competition between the Spanish and French Catholics, an adequate window of opportunity was created which English Protestants seized. Because of these events, with the exception of pockets of missionary activity in the American southwest Catholic influences had to await the immigrants of the eighteenth century to gain a significant foothold in American religious thought. This foothold grew, and by the twentieth century Catholicism could boast of having elected one of their own as President of the United States. From after, Vatican II relations with the old established sects of Protestantism continued to improve. In 1958 Jacques Martian offered a revealing look at the religious landscape of America which apparently significantly affected the author giving him one of his major themes. Martian wrote “Americans seem to be in their own land as pilgrims, prodded by a dream. They are always on the move . . . , not settled, installed” (431).

The third broad category of American religious history is Judaism. Having been practiced in America since colonial times, American Jews have enjoyed a tolerance previously unknown among the nations of the world. With one exception in 1658 America, Marty records that no Jewish believer has had to stand trial for blasphemy (84). In fact, America’s tolerance fostered the atmosphere in which Isaac Mayer Wise and his Reform party of Judaism could speak of “the American way” (288), stifling for some time visions of Jewish Zionism among American Jews. Wise’s message, nurtured by his optimism in America was that “Reform Judaism was not just a faith for Jews but was the faith for moderns, the fulfillment for Americans” (290).

The fourth broad category of American religious history is secular humanism. The beginnings of secular humanism can be traced to the founding father’s desire to create a religion from the state. Prior to the constitution’s ratification, “Benjamin Franklin called for a ‘public religion,’” (154). This religion denied the divinity of Christ while agreeing with the moral code that Jesus advanced (157). George Washington, through his ambiguous statements about religion, also further advanced the idea of a secular religion (158). This public religion became rooted in America’s legal, educational, and political systems. This new secular, or public religion, had “Its creed in the Declaration (of Independence), its prophecies in the most compelling lines of presidential addresses, its psalms in some American poetry” (165). Marty writes that by eighteen hundred this secular religion was strong enough that it was a rival to the traditional church (169). Prior to the War Between the States in 1838, Abraham Lincoln was able to clearly articulate what Franklin had earlier voiced. Lincoln said that “reverence for laws must produce ‘the political religion of the nation,’ and this religion . . . should call forth unceasing sacrifice on its altar” (222). This strain of secularism found a strong advocate in the theories of Darwin which, when combined with the shift away from biblical Christianity within the academy, provided another secular voice with which the churches must vie.

Several apparent biases appear throughout this book. As Marty attempts to explain Queen Isabella’s of Spain inner war, he lists revulsion for the “cocksureness, even fanaticism with which believers felt that God chartered their version of faith as being alone the pure and true one” (16).

Another example of bias is evident in Marty’s discussion of the Great Awakening. Marty is not certain that there was a significant declension preceding the revivals (108). Furthermore, he engages in the historians’ fallacy of insinuating motivation to the revivalists during this awakening. He writes that “to get the revival off the ground, the pioneers . . . had to demonstrate a need in the colonies. Never trust a revivalist preacher for a fully accurate picture of how bad the times were spiritually” (109). Not only does Marty have a bias against the revivalists’ trustworthiness in accurately portraying the times preceding the revival, he also implies that there possibly were problems with Edwards’ motivation in four areas of this revival. First, Marty implies that Edwards studied crowd psychology in the conversions occurring in other towns (114), possibly suggesting causation in the revival of Northampton. Second, he attributes an impure motive to Edwards’ in rewriting history with Northampton as its climax for the purpose of increasing the peoples’ reaction to the revival. Third, Marty states that Edwards placed the “Made in America” stamp on the revival even though he knew there were similar revivals breaking out on the European continent (115). Fourth, Marty’s bias against Edwards is further revealed in his description of Edwards’ book on the revival as “six quaint pages in a book rarely read about an awakening most Americans never heard of” (116).

Again evidence of an anti-evangelical bias by Marty is revealed when he writes that George Whitfield, following his conversion, engaged in “spreading the charge revivalists like to make: that one may go to church and say prayers but still not be a Christian without a specific experience” (118).

Yet another example of bias on Marty’s part is apparent when, in his discussion of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Crawford H. Toy, he writes that “Toy unfortunately had to test his ideas . . . in the Southern Baptist Convention”(304). Toy agreed with the new theory which German scholars taught: that when studying the Scripture, “the kernel of truth” must be separated “from its outer covering of myth” (305). These views were discussed within the Southern Baptist Convention leading Toy to resign.

A more remarkable occurrence of bias is Marty’s statement that Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science movement “was one of the most impressive visions and achievements on the American spiritual landscape” (331). Once more Marty shows his liberal bias over and against current conservative views when he counts as one of the most vital signs of mainline church strengthening “the efforts to break two-thousand-year-old patterns of male dominance in religion” (438).

Overall, this is a helpful edition which provides a thorough treatment of the diverse religious background of America’s people. Marty’s treatment is, in the main, as balanced as modern evangelicals may expect from any but their own writers. There is a rich collection of historic information contained in this volume which makes it profitable for anyone seeking to begin to gain an understanding of America’s religious heritage.

End Notes

1. Marty, Martin. Pilgrims in Their Own Land. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. 488 pp.