Everyone knows the classic story of how America was founded by pilgrims and puritans fleeing oppressive lands in search of religious freedom. The problem is that this classic story doesn’t adequately relate the much messier and more interesting history of religious tolerance in the United States or elsewhere. From Roger Williams’s Bloudy Tenent to today’s Internet debates, the idea of religious tolerance in America has been a flashpoint of debate and controversy.
In this episode Chris Beneke and Christopher Grenda discuss their new book of essays, The Lively Experiment: Religious Toleration in America from Roger Williams to the Present.
About the Guests
Chris Beneke is associate professor of history at Bentley University. He wrote the book Beyond Toleration: The Religious Origins of American Pluralism. He contributed a review essay on anti-Mormonism to volume two of the Mormon Studies Review.
Christopher Grenda is professor of history at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. Among other books, he co-edited The First Prejudice: Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early America. Chris and Christopher are the editors of the new book, The Lively Experiment: Religious Toleration in America From Roger Williams to the Present.
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The post #31—Religious tolerance in American history, with Chris Beneke and Christopher Grenda [MIPodcast] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute - Brigham Young University.