Memoirs Of The Spirit: American Religious Autobiography From Jonathan Edwards To Maya Angelou

Offering a fascinating entry in the study of American religious experience during the past three centuries, this collection of 26 spiritual autobiographies uniquely captures the nation's soul in the words of the people who helped shape it. Contributors include Reinhold Niebuhr, Paramahansa Yogananda, Mary McCarthy, Thomas Merton, Alan Watts, Jimmy Carter, Maya Angelou, and others.

This anthology displays the tapestry of religious experience in America during the past three centuries. Compiled and edited by a foremost historian of American religion, these twenty-six spiritual autobiographies, ordered chronologically, uniquely capture the nation's soul in the words of the people who helped shape it.. "Featuring a full-page portrait of most of the writers included in the volume as well as insightful introductory comments by Edwin Gaustad, Memoirs of the Spirit offers an enlightening view of America's rich religious past - and suggests the multiplicity that is America's religious future.