God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America: Quakers, Unitarians, Reconstructionist Jews, and the Crisis Over Theism by Isaac Barnes May (review)

Reviewed by: God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America: Quakers, Unitarians, Reconstructionist Jews, and the Crisis Over Theismby Isaac Barnes May Brian C. Wilson God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America: Quakers, Unitarians, Reconstructionist Jews, and the Crisis Over Theism. By Isaac Barnes May. Oxford University Press, 2022. 344pages. 83. 00 hardcover; ebook available. The processes of secularization that occurred during the twentieth century were many and varied, and can be charted in a multitude of ways. In God-Optional Religion in Twentieth-Century America, Isaac Barnes End Page 116May explores one facet of this growing secularization by tracing the theological shifts allowing for certain liberal denominations "to permit their members a broad leeway in what they chose to believe about God" (2). These beliefs ranged from deism and pantheism to agnosticism and atheism. Such ideas, of course, had been noticeably present on the American religious scene since the nineteenth century, but by the early twentieth century, the principle of open theological choice was beginning to find denominational homes. May focuses on three of these denominations that were particularly influential in this shift: liberal Quakerism, Unitarianism, and Reconstructionist Judaism. Each of these denominations was fortunate in drawing to their ranks powerful thinkers whose works reached beyond the pews and found a receptive audience among other liberal, yet more mainstream denominations, not to mention the public at large. Thus, despite their small numbers, May argues, each of these religious groups was "instrumental in reconceptualizing what it meant to be part of a religious organization in America" by "decoupling. . . religious belonging from. . . specific religious beliefs" (3). By the 1960s, the growing acceptance of this decoupling would spur the evolution of the legal definition of religion, just in time to accommodate—or perhaps catalyze—the radical religious diversification of this country. In chapter 1, May gives a bird's-eye view of the rapidly changing theological scene in America from the turn of the last century to the 1920s. In the face of what Walter Lippmann called the "acids of modernity" (22), many clergy and public intellectuals began to "convert" (23) away from traditional religion to more liberal forms of faith. What was needed now, many contended, was an "adult faith" (27). What this actually meant in terms of theology could be murky, resulting in "a blurry spectrum of beliefs" (46) unified only by a rejection of "a personal or supernatural deity" (47). This allowed for anything from deism to pantheism, all the way to the vague "God" of Alfred North Whitehead's process theology or the atheism/agnosticism of Humanism. For those liberal denominations that still insisted on some theological conformity, such as the Congregationalists and the Northern Baptists, this vagueness created problems. But for some broad-minded denominations, such as liberal Quakerism, Unitarianism, and Reconstructionist Judaism, "God-optional" theology became a key part of their identities and appeal. The next three chapters of the book highlight the personalities in these traditions who were instrumental in institutionalizing this right to choose one's own version of God. Chapter 2 traces the road to God-optionality in the most liberal branch of Quakerism, the Friends General Conference (FGC), whose roots were in the radical Hicksite movement of the nineteenth century. Newly open to outsiders after the turn of the century, the FGC sought to attract new members by advertising their openness to non-anthropomorphic understandings of God. Ironically, the thinker who End Page 117had the most impact on the FGC's gradual shift toward complete Godoptionality was a member of a rival Quaker faction, the relatively conservative Friends Yearly Meeting, namely Rufus Jones. Inspired by early Quaker writers as filtered through Ralph Waldo Emerson and William James, Jones created an immensely popular form of Quaker mysticism, which found a receptive audience not only among Quakers, but among the general public. When it came to American Judaism, the subject of chapter 3, the situation was different, as an atheistic branch, the Ethical Culture Society, was already well established before the 1920s. For Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, however, this took things too far. Although God-optional in his theology, Kaplan did not wish to abandon his identity as a Jew, which he. . .