Late 19th-Century America

The Civil War to WWII marked some significant cracks in the American protestant empire, with new religious movements and philosophies gaining ground.

The Religious Setting

By 1900, the mix of Catholicism, conflicts (esp. between Lutheran and Presbyterians), liberalism and intellectualism, was challenging the Protestant stronghold in America. Metaphysical and other type sects were draining membership from mainstream denominations. This was seen in political influence, with Prohibition being the last Protestant-imposed standard nationwide, and the 1928 nomination of Alfred Smith for President (D) followed by the election of John F. Kennedy (D) 1960.

In 1890, 80% of Protestant churches were still mainstream, accounting for 55% of the religious population. Other major groups the grow out of this time were:

Socialism: seeking the end of institutional religion
Liberalism & Social Gospel:united religion and science, 1920-60's very influential.
Non-mainstream movements: From Mennonites to Mormons, Christian Science and Unitarians. Also blacks, Jews, Catholics and Lutherans who refused mainstream assimilation.
Fundamentalists: Interdenominationalists who resisted religious innovation.
Holiness & Pentecostal: Distinct separation from the Secular, seeking fullness of the Spirit.
Alternative Reality: Metaphysics and Eastern immigrations

Revivalism gave American religion a dynamic boost, while pluralism was also on the rise. The effect of this being the emergence of many new cults and sects, mainly with occult, metaphysical and/or Eastern basis, as well as evangelical "protest groups", including Jehovah's Witnesses, the World Wide Church of God (Angstromism), Jesus Only, and several black cults.

Social and Economic Influences

This time was regarded as the birth of modern America: Industry, science, megacities and quickened transportation.

Immigration peaked the first decade of 1900's: Central & Eastern Europe brought Roman & Eastern Catholic and Jewish faiths, and other areas brought some Muslim, Hindu and Buddhists. Much hostility and prejudice grew in this time. The KKK peaked in 1932, with fear of communism, religious and ethnic overtakes of the country. The Johnson-Reed act of 1924 limited immigration and capped non-protestant influx until after WWII. Many immigrants kept ties with their native state-church, slipped from religion, or formed their own communities (i.e., the Mennonites from Russia). But some formed new groups which would be considered offshoots of their native religion, Judeo-Christian or otherwise.

Urbanization produced ethnic and economic cleavages: Many immigrants never got exposed to the American protestant religion. City areas w/o a church often formed their own groups, sometimes basing the movement on being repressed by those who "left them out." Henceforth, the cities experienced the largest exodus of Protestant churches.

Intellectualism

Geology (Charles Lyell (1797-1875)) and evolution (Charles Darwin (1809-82)) gave the anti-religious a basis to build a godless worldview. Herbert Spenser (1820-1903) carried this into mainstream social theory. Sociology, anthropology, modern psychology including behaviorism and psychoanalysis.

Biblical "higher criticism" looked at the Bible as literature, and propagated ideas that stripped the Bible of its message of salvation through Christ. Produced theological liberalism, seen by many as the breaking damn of moral relativism.

Blending these new sciences with spiritualism and the occult produced parapsychology: "science of psychic abilities." --> extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK).

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