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"In David Hackett’s deeply researched and compellingly written study, the Masons step directly into American religious history. Hackett presents Freemasonry as a bricolage of Enlightenment pretensions, Romanticism dreams, Christian inheritances, fragments of 'ancient' wisdom, and Native American lore. It is a surprisingly multicultural story, and in Hackett's telling, Freemasonry helped create the modern American public sphere by offering a forum for collective action and male solidarity. That Religion in Which All Men Agree is religious history on a grand scale." —Robert Orsi, Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies and History at Northwestern University
"There are many studies of Freemasonry, but none like this one. Combining original research with a 'big picture' synthetic story about the history of Freemasonry, That Religion in Which All Men Agree is a valuable and useful work of scholarship." —Paul Harvey, coauthor of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America
"Professor Hackett examines Freemasonry as a radically tolerant power uniting European Americans and enabling men of different backgrounds—African American, Native American, Jewish, and Catholic—to integrate into the larger American society. He demonstrates how Freemasonry was used to conciliate true friendship among those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance and clearly establishes the Fraternity as a robust and complex force in the evolution of American society." —S. Brent Morris, Past Master, Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, London
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE. EUROPEAN AMERICAN FREEMASONRY
1. Colonial Freemasonry and Polite Society, 1733–1776
2. Revolutionary Masonry: Republican and Christian, 1757–1825
3. A Private World of Ritual, 1797–1825 00
4. Anti-Masonry and the Public Sphere, 1826–1850
5. Gender, Protestants, and Freemasonry, 1850–1920
PART TWO. BEYOND THE WHITE PROTESTANT MIDDLE CLASS
6. The Prince Hall Masons and the African American Church: The Labors of Grand Master and Bishop James Walker Hood, 1864–1918
7. Freemasonry and Native Americans, 1776–1920
8. Jews and Catholics, 1723–1920
Epilogue
Notes
Index
About the author
David G. Hackett teaches American religious history at the University of Florida.
Summary
Weaves the story of Freemasonry into the narrative of American religious history. In this book, the author argues that from the 1730s through the early twentieth century the religious worlds of an evolving American social order broadly appropriated the beliefs and initiatory practices of this all-male society.
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"The depth of Hackett’s research, which is not meant to offer exhaustive histories but rather demonstrates of why Freemasonry is a helpful source for understanding American religious culture—especially pertaining to gender and race."
