From the days of discovery, when America was for Europeans more dream than reality, to our own days of disillusionment and faltering hope, poets, philosophers, historians, novelists, and theologians have drawn on religious themes and images to express the meaning of their encounter with America. Here, in more than one hundred selections, is the record of their quest for a New World metaphysics -- a spiritual vision or ultimate idea of order expressive of the American experience.
Comprehensive in scope, New World Metaphysics draws on a diverse body of material, ranging from travel narratives and personal diaries to lyric poetry and theological treatises, by such writers as Shakespeare, Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, H. L. Mencken, John Dewey, Rheinhold Niebuhr, Malcolm X, and Norman Mailer. Introductions by the editor highlight the principal themes.