“What would a history of American religion look like if it were grounded in a shared human biology, in the genetics, hormones, sexual organs, bilateral structures, and sensorium of the human body? That is precisely what Robert C. Fuller gives us in The Body of Faith. I was deeply inspired and moved by it.”

Jeffrey J. Kripal | author of Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred

“In contrast to traditional historians of religion and especially to those now arguing for the return of supernaturalism as an acceptable explanation of religious behavior, Robert Fuller provocatively pushes for greater naturalism, emphasizing the importance of the body—especially the brain and nervous system—as ‘a critical historical category’ in studying various manifestations of religion in America. Nimbly avoiding the pitfalls of biological determinism, Fuller makes a persuasive case for adding biological and psychological mechanisms to our analytical toolbox. Believers and postmodernists, however, should beware: this book will challenge their spiritual and intellectual convictions.”

Ronald L. Numbers | author of The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design

“Blending analysis of religion’s biological functions with acknowledgment of its cultural construction, this lucid volume offers persuasive accounts of apocalypticism, fundamentalism, spiritual seeking, and other salient characteristics of American religion. Fuller’s even-handed treatment of scientific explanation complements his mastery of historical sources in a forceful testament to religion’s importance in American life.”

Amanda Porterfield | author of Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation

"[A] readable and highly recommended text."

The Catholic Historical Review

"A wonderfully ambitious and wide-ranging effort designed to bring the biological body into the history of religion in America and by extension into the study of religion more generally."

Journal of the American Academy of Religion