The eighteen essays collected in this book had their origin in a conference of the same title, held at the Wingspread Conference Center in October of 1993. Some of the most distinguished scholars in the field were invited to reflect on their specialities in American religious history in ways that summarized where the field is and where it ought to move in the decades to come. Organized according to four general ways of looking at religious history--places and regions, universal themes, transformative events, and marginal groups and ethno-cultural “outsiders”--the essays address a wide range of topics, including Puritanism, religion and the Civil War, Protestantism and economic behavior, gender and sexuality in American Protestantism, and the contemporary de-Christianization of American culture. Featuring contributions from David D. Hall, Donald G. Matthews, Allen C. Guelzo, Gordon S. Wood, Daniel Walker Howe, Robert Wuthnow, Jon Butler, David A. Hollinger, and others, this thought-provoking and up-to-date collection will interest anyone involved in the study of American religion and history.