Through Ballou's lengthy spiritual quest, from 1820 to 1880, this book examines how denominational histories, however important, do not explain what a nineteenth-century New England Christian became. Ballou exemplifies this paradox. Always fixed, but never settled. Once a believer chose a path, new phenomena and teachings immediately appeared leaving one's truth claims transient. Through the Christian maze of nineteenth-century New England, Ballou's Christian faith was simply his own.