ABSTRACT
The explosive combination of America’s radical re-ligious and cultural diversity within a hegemonic, entrenched Protestantism has served as the catalyst for some of the most powerful social movements in U.S. history. Pre-contact Native Americans practiced many different beliefs whose multiplicity was only enhanced by the post-Columbian immigration of Europeans and Africans with their own myriad systems of belief and practice. The U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against establishing a single national religion further set the foundation for a plurality of religions to flourish. Without the state to regulate orthodoxy, Americans were free to believe as they chose and to start new movements when they became dissatisfied with existing religions. Substantial immigration added to America’s religious diversity. Men and women from all over the globe brought their cultures to the North American soil. Yet immigrant and Native religions never remained static, but in different regions around the country evolved in particular and distinct ways, lending local flair to adherents’ spiritual lives. At the same time, Protestant Christianity has left an indelible imprint on the major institutions, creeds, and belief systems that shape civic life. But like every other American religion, Protestantism has changed over time, influencing other religions as they influence it. American religions are in a constant state of evolution resulting from centuries of contact between competing groups of religious people. This contact and combination between the dominant culture and the nation’s many subcultures has been the definitive characteristic of American religion and has inspired complex social movements.
