Skepticism and Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War by Christopher Grasso (review)

American religious history has changed drastically over the past one hundred years. Religious historians moved from the confessional histories of the nineteenth century towards examining religious groups as cultural entities. At times over the past two decades, scholars congratulated themselves on these changes in form and function. Perhaps that is why the premise behind Christopher Grasso's book was so striking to me. Grasso puts religious skepticism at the center of his study and in doing so reminds religious historians that belief is only one piece of the story. Rather than emphasizing belief, this book argues that antebellum Americans were far more open to religious skepticism, doubt, and freethinking than we often assume. And that doubt, in particular, drove early American intellectual history until the Civil War when the sacralization of North and South left no room for the skeptic in American public life.

Grasso starts his investigation in the heady, politically charged world of revolutionary America where skepticism was often a political liability and a moral failing. Part one examines how the American Revolution enabled and encouraged skepticism while it also restricted skeptics from forming organized associations such as the Deistical societies that might give skepticism cultural and political legitimacy. Grasso places the "deist hero" Ethan Allen in conversation with the "deist monster" William Beadle and the faith of Jarena Lee with the skepticism of Elihu Palmer. Skepticism existed in eighteenth-century America but it could not flourish because of the institutional obstacles—like legal restrictions and religious patriotism—of the new nation.

Part two, Enlightenments, considers the intersection of belief, economics, and morality by focusing particularly on Thomas Cooper's skepticism and economic support of slavery. Grasso contrasts Cooper's skepticism with the faith of Ezra Stiles Ely and David Nelson who together founded Marion College in Missouri on the principles of "enlightened Christian moral economy" (p. 228). When the college failed, these two men came to see skepticism, and slavery, as the main cause. Concluding this section of the book, Grasso compares Nelson and Ely's splintered visions for the nation with the way in which anti-slavery brought New England Unitarians and skeptics back together. Tracing the arguments of George Bethune English, Theodore Parker, and Richard Hildreth among others, Grasso argues that this common moral cause pushed the threat of deism and skepticism away from that region for a time.

Part three follows attempts to change American behaviors through radical social and spiritual reformations between 1820 and 1850. "Radical Reformers" like Frances Wright, Robert Dale Owen, and William Alcott emphasized communal living, diet, and purposeful living as keys to social change while others, like Orestes Brownson, moved from skepticism to faith and found religious ways of working for earthly reform. These reformers, however, conflicted with socially conservative Christians who argued, in various ways, that worldly success and economic security provided scant comfort in the next life.

Part four, Sacred Causes, considers how "civil religious theology" or "public theology" shaped Americans' opinions about slavery, Christianity, and the Civil War. Smaller than the previous sections of the book these two chapters demonstrate how the South, or at least South Carolina, melded Christianity and pro-slavery thought to the exclusion of skepticism. In the North, meanwhile, individuals could work in unison against slavery while believing in different religions—some battling slavery in the name of God while others fought for the "promise of Freedom and Equality" (p. 395).

This book is a masterpiece; it tells a big story through detailed and nuanced historical research. Skepticism and Faith provides a grand narrative of American history through the Civil War that rivals popular narratives of American progress and toleration. Instead, Grasso offers doubt and skepticism as the engine behind American development. This is not a popular history book, however, as its dense prose weaves together intellectual biographies of many American thinkers. In any given chapter, Grasso brings three or four...