Spiritualism in Antebellum America

In this study, Spiritualism emerges as a reflection of and a reaction to many currents in antebellum American life, including more democratic conceptions of religious authority, the revolt against religious formalism, the emergence of new religious groups, the liberalization of Protestant theology, the growing cultural power of science, and the rise of commercial capitalism. For believers, Spiritualism was a liberating rebellion against the religious status quo and a new religion that brought order, structure, comfort, and a sense of community to their lives. This is the story of spiritually restless Americans of the 1840s and 1850s attempting to create a space of ordered freedom in which to seek harmony with the universe.