American Religion

Led by Peter Stallybrass and Michael Warner

This talk will center around a unique, beautifully scribed manuscript housed at the AAS, which was given the title 'The Cabbala of the Jews' by its cataloger in 1935. Until recently, this manuscript had never been studied and had an anonymous author, though recent investigation shows that it was written by the famous Scottish Quaker thinker who had made his way to East Jersey, George Keith. The manuscript made its way to Cotton Mather and played a key role in his polemics against Quakerism.

In this program, William Hart will discuss with David Silverman the significance and meaning of eighteenth-century Mohawks who performed Christianity and why. Hart’s findings, published in his 2020 book, “For the Good of Their Souls”: Performing Christianity in Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Country, indicate that the old soubriquet of “faithful Mohawks” is no longer useful.

From 1650 through 1760, a shift occurred in English descriptions of world religions—vividly pictured in engravings, dictionaries, and travel narratives. The descriptions began as unabated criticism of non-Protestant faiths: Native American traditions as satanic, Islam as violent, and Roman Catholicism as idolatrous. During the mid-eighteenth century, however, they praised the moral mindsets of many Native Americans, admired the learning within many Islamic sects, and applauded the kindness of many Roman Catholics―reflecting ideas of religious freedom and tolerance.