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One of the earliest sources of humanity's religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition, but in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature's most violent windstorm. In this groundbreaking history, Peter J. Thuesen traces the primal connections between weather and religion in the United States. He shows that tornadoes and other storms have repeatedly drawn Americans into the profoundest of religious mysteries and confronted them with the question of their own destiny--how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1: "Whirlwind of the Lord":
- The Enduring God(s) of the Storm
- 2: "The Violence of Winds, and the Reasonings of Men":
- Storms and Providence in Colonial America
- 3: "Stormy Wind Fulfilling His Word":
- Meteorology and Theology in the Nineteenth Century
- 4: "Every Wind of Doctrine":
- Explaining the Whirlwind, 1900-1965
- 5: "As Stubble Before the Wind":
- Divine Mystery and Human Responsibility
- Conclusion: The Primal Whirlwind
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Peter J. Thuesen is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and co-editor of Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. His previous books include Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine, and In Discordance with the Scriptures: American Protestant Battles over Translating the Bible.
Summary
One of the earliest sources of humanity's religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition and predicted they would pass away as humans became more scientifically and theologically sophisticated. But in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature's most violent windstorm. Striking the United States more than any other nation, tornadoes have consistently defied scientists' efforts to unlock their secrets. Meteorologists now acknowledge that even the most powerful computers will likely never be able to predict a tornado's precise path.
Similarly, tornadoes have repeatedly brought Americans to the outer limits of theology, drawing them into the vortex of such mysteries as how to reconcile suffering with a loving God and whether there is underlying purpose or randomness in the universe. In this groundbreaking history, Peter Thuesen captures the harrowing drama of tornadoes, as clergy, theologians, meteorologists, and ordinary citizens struggle to make sense of these death-dealing tempests. He argues that, in the tornado, Americans experience something that is at once culturally peculiar (the indigenous storm of the national imagination) and religiously primal (the sense of awe before an unpredictable and mysterious power). He also shows that, in an era of climate change, the weather raises the issue of society's complicity in natural disasters. In the whirlwind, Americans confront the question of their own destiny-how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.
Additional text
Though tornadoes seem to exist outside of history, Peter Thuesen shows, in this first serious historical study of U.S. tornadoes, that these storms have deeply challenged everyone from theologians to scientists to confront their vulnerability in the face of violent natural forces. The perfect book to curl up with in a world increasingly wracked by extreme weather.
