American Freethinker
Elihu Palmer and the Struggle for Religious Freedom in the New Nation
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nan McNamara
-
By:
-
Kirsten Fischer
About this listen
When the United States was new, a lapsed minister named Elihu Palmer shared with his fellow Americans the radical idea that virtue required no religious foundation. A better source for morality, he said, could be found in the natural world. For this, his Christian critics denounced him as a heretic whose ideas endangered the country.
One of the most infamous American freethinkers in his day, Elihu Palmer has been largely forgotten. No cache of his personal papers exists, and his book has been long out of print. Yet his story merits telling, Kirsten Fischer argues, and not only for the dramatic account of a man who lost his eyesight before the age of 30 and still became a book author, newspaper editor, and itinerant public speaker.
Palmer's "heresy" tested the nation's recently proclaimed commitment to freedom of religion and of speech. Fischer reveals that Palmer engaged in person and in print with an array of freethinkers - some famous, others now obscure. This first comprehensive biography of Palmer draws on extensive archival research to tell the life story of a freethinker who was at the heart of the new nation's protracted contest over religious freedom and free speech - a debate that continues to resonate today.
©2021 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
American Demagogue
- The Great Awakening and the Rise and Fall of Populism
- By: J. D. Dickey
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1740, New England experienced a social earthquake in the figure of a 21-year-old preacher. People were abuzz with his stunning oratory, his colorful theatrics, and his almost ungodly sense of power and presence. When George Whitefield arrived in the small towns and hamlets that made up the American colonies, he proved to be much more than anything the residents could have expected. His reputation and growing legend had been built on his brilliant speeches and frightening tirades, and his fame now engulfed what would become America.
-
-
Fine history with bait and switch title
- By Kindle Customer on 04-06-22
By: J. D. Dickey
-
The Story of Philosophy
- The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Durant lucidly describes the philosophical systems of such world-famous “monarchs of the mind” as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, and Nietzsche. Along with their ideas, he offers their flesh-and-blood biographies, placing their thoughts within their own time and place and elucidating their influence on our modern intellectual heritage. This book is packed with wisdom and wit.
-
-
Fantastic and insightful book
- By ESK on 01-25-13
By: Will Durant
-
Philosophers
- Religious and Political Thinkers from Past Centuries
- By: Nelly Vortex
- Narrated by: Ric Chetter
- Length: 3 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered what great philosophers from the past have thought of? What were their ideas, perspectives, and insights on life’s events? Look no further, as you will learn about four deep thinkers in history who have paved the way for others to learn and to ponder life. The four philosophers discussed in this book include Thomas Aquinas, David Hume, Desiderius Erasmus, and Baruch Spinoza.
-
-
Excellent
- By Anonymous User on 03-18-20
By: Nelly Vortex
-
The Founding Myth
- Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American
- By: Andrew L. Seidel, Susan Jacoby - Foreword
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do "In God We Trust", the Declaration of Independence, and other historical "evidence" prove that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles? Are the Ten Commandments the basis for American law? A constitutional attorney dives into the debate about religion's role in America's founding.
-
-
Just 2 Issues
- By VIPER G on 09-01-19
By: Andrew L. Seidel, and others
-
The Devil and Karl Marx
- Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration
- By: Paul Kengor
- Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two decades after the publication of The Black Book of Communism, nearly everyone is or at least should be aware of the immense evil produced by that devilish ideology first hatched when Karl Marx penned his Communist Manifesto two centuries ago. Far too many people, however, separate Marx the man from the evils wrought by the oppressive ideology and theory that bears his name.
-
-
Must read in today's climate
- By sarah on 08-25-20
By: Paul Kengor
-
The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
-
-
The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
-
American Demagogue
- The Great Awakening and the Rise and Fall of Populism
- By: J. D. Dickey
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1740, New England experienced a social earthquake in the figure of a 21-year-old preacher. People were abuzz with his stunning oratory, his colorful theatrics, and his almost ungodly sense of power and presence. When George Whitefield arrived in the small towns and hamlets that made up the American colonies, he proved to be much more than anything the residents could have expected. His reputation and growing legend had been built on his brilliant speeches and frightening tirades, and his fame now engulfed what would become America.
-
-
Fine history with bait and switch title
- By Kindle Customer on 04-06-22
By: J. D. Dickey
-
The Story of Philosophy
- The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Durant lucidly describes the philosophical systems of such world-famous “monarchs of the mind” as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, and Nietzsche. Along with their ideas, he offers their flesh-and-blood biographies, placing their thoughts within their own time and place and elucidating their influence on our modern intellectual heritage. This book is packed with wisdom and wit.
-
-
Fantastic and insightful book
- By ESK on 01-25-13
By: Will Durant
-
Philosophers
- Religious and Political Thinkers from Past Centuries
- By: Nelly Vortex
- Narrated by: Ric Chetter
- Length: 3 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered what great philosophers from the past have thought of? What were their ideas, perspectives, and insights on life’s events? Look no further, as you will learn about four deep thinkers in history who have paved the way for others to learn and to ponder life. The four philosophers discussed in this book include Thomas Aquinas, David Hume, Desiderius Erasmus, and Baruch Spinoza.
-
-
Excellent
- By Anonymous User on 03-18-20
By: Nelly Vortex
-
The Founding Myth
- Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American
- By: Andrew L. Seidel, Susan Jacoby - Foreword
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do "In God We Trust", the Declaration of Independence, and other historical "evidence" prove that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles? Are the Ten Commandments the basis for American law? A constitutional attorney dives into the debate about religion's role in America's founding.
-
-
Just 2 Issues
- By VIPER G on 09-01-19
By: Andrew L. Seidel, and others
-
The Devil and Karl Marx
- Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration
- By: Paul Kengor
- Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two decades after the publication of The Black Book of Communism, nearly everyone is or at least should be aware of the immense evil produced by that devilish ideology first hatched when Karl Marx penned his Communist Manifesto two centuries ago. Far too many people, however, separate Marx the man from the evils wrought by the oppressive ideology and theory that bears his name.
-
-
Must read in today's climate
- By sarah on 08-25-20
By: Paul Kengor
-
The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
-
-
The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
-
American Gospel
- God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In American Gospel (literally meaning the "good news about America"), New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham sets the record straight on the history of religion in American public life. As Meacham shows, faith, meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen, has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th.
-
-
what you weren't taught in school
- By Stanley on 06-12-06
By: Jon Meacham
-
The Unbroken Thread
- Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos
- By: Sohrab Ahmari
- Narrated by: Sohrab Ahmari
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young father and a self-proclaimed “radically assimilated immigrant,” opinion editor Sohrab Ahmari realized that when it comes to shaping his young son’s moral fiber, today’s America is woefully lacking. For millennia, the world’s great ethical and religious traditions have taught that true happiness lies in pursuing virtue and accepting limits.
-
-
One of the books I'll pass on to my children
- By Jeromy Darling on 05-20-21
By: Sohrab Ahmari
-
A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Edwards is one of the most extraordinary figures in American history. Arguably the most brilliant theologian ever born on American soil, Edwards (1703 - 1758) was also a pastor, a renowned preacher, a missionary to the Native Americans, a biographer, a college president, a philosopher, a loving husband, and the father of 11 children.
-
-
Terrific book and well narrated
- By SBT on 01-22-11
-
The Book That Made Your World
- How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization
- By: Vishal Mangalwadi
- Narrated by: Peter Lawrence
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether you're an avid student of the Bible or a skeptic of its relevance, The Book That Made Your World will transform your perception of its influence on virtually every facet of Western civilization. Vishal Mangalwadi reveals the personal motivation that fueled his own study of the Bible. Learn how the Bible transformed the social, political, and religious institutions that have sustained Western culture for the past millennium, and discover how secular corruption endangers the stability and longevity of Western civilization.
-
-
loved this look on the Western World
- By DM on 11-03-20
-
Bullies and Saints
- An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History
- By: John Dickson
- Narrated by: John Dickson
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining narrative with keen critique of contemporary debates, author and historian John Dickson gives an honest account of 2,000 years of Christian history that helps us understand what Christianity is and what it's meant to be.
-
-
Insightful and well told
- By Greg Basch on 12-18-21
By: John Dickson
-
Benjamin Franklin
- The Religious Life of a Founding Father
- By: Thomas S. Kidd
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned as a printer, scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin also published more works on religious topics than any other 18th-century American layperson. Born to Boston Puritans, by his teenage years Franklin had abandoned the exclusive Christian faith of his family and embraced deism. But Franklin, as a man of faith, was far more complex than the "thorough deist" who emerges in his autobiography.
-
-
Masterful!
- By Keith Beutler on 06-10-17
By: Thomas S. Kidd
-
The Democratization of American Christianity
- By: Nathan O. Hatch
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The half century following the American Revolution witnessed the transformation of American Christianity. The passion for equality, says Hatch, brought about a crisis or religious authority in popular culture, introduced new and popular forms of theology, witnessed the rise of minority religious movements, reshaped preaching, singing, and publishing, and became a scriptural foundation for 19th century American individualism.
-
-
Wow, eye opening
- By Dusty Jackson on 01-06-21
By: Nathan O. Hatch
-
A Book Forged in Hell
- Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age
- By: Steven Nadler
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published. In A Book Forged in Hell, Steven Nadler tells the fascinating story of this extraordinary book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired.
-
-
Well researched, comprehensive intro to Spinoza’s work.
- By Tom on 01-27-22
By: Steven Nadler
-
Nature's God
- The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
- By: Matthew Stewart
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy? Not only the erudite Thomas Jefferson, the wily and elusive Ben Franklin, and the underappreciated Thomas Paine, but also Ethan Allen, the hero of the Green Mountain Boys, and Thomas Young, the forgotten Founder who kicked off the Boston Tea Party. These radicals who founded America set their sights on a revolution of the mind. Derided as "infidels" and "atheists" in their own time, they wanted to liberate us not just from one king but from the tyranny of supernatural religion.
-
-
Excellent exploration of this subject
- By Caroline on 01-13-15
By: Matthew Stewart
-
The Great Agnostic
- Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought
- By: Susan Jacoby
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biography that restores America's foremost 19th-century champion of reason and secularism to our still contested 21st-century public square. During the Gilded Age, which saw the dawn of America's enduring culture wars, Robert Green Ingersoll was known as "the Great Agnostic". The nation's most famous orator, he raised his voice on behalf of Enlightenment reason, secularism, and the separation of church and state with a vigor unmatched since America's revolutionary generation.
-
-
Marvelous
- By tony on 08-09-17
By: Susan Jacoby
-
The Year of Our Lord 1943
- Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis
- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear the Allies would win the Second World War. Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic thought the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. These Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others - sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world.
-
-
The Audible is a Train Wreck
- By John on 09-04-18
By: Alan Jacobs
-
God and Government
- An Insider's View on the Boundaries between Faith and Politics
- By: Charles W. Colson
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How should Christians live their faith in the public arena? In an era when Christianity is being attacked from every side - books being written charging Christians with being theocrats and trying to impose their views on an unwilling culture - what is the message of the Christian church? What does the Bible say, and what do we learn from history about the proper relationship between faith and culture? Appealing to scripture, reason, and history, this audiobook tackles society's most pressing and divisive issues.
-
-
A Critically Import Read for a Time Such as This
- By S Jones on 06-04-22
Related to this topic
-
American Demagogue
- The Great Awakening and the Rise and Fall of Populism
- By: J. D. Dickey
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1740, New England experienced a social earthquake in the figure of a 21-year-old preacher. People were abuzz with his stunning oratory, his colorful theatrics, and his almost ungodly sense of power and presence. When George Whitefield arrived in the small towns and hamlets that made up the American colonies, he proved to be much more than anything the residents could have expected. His reputation and growing legend had been built on his brilliant speeches and frightening tirades, and his fame now engulfed what would become America.
-
-
Fine history with bait and switch title
- By Kindle Customer on 04-06-22
By: J. D. Dickey
-
American Gospel
- God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In American Gospel (literally meaning the "good news about America"), New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham sets the record straight on the history of religion in American public life. As Meacham shows, faith, meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen, has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th.
-
-
what you weren't taught in school
- By Stanley on 06-12-06
By: Jon Meacham
-
The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
-
-
The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
-
A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Edwards is one of the most extraordinary figures in American history. Arguably the most brilliant theologian ever born on American soil, Edwards (1703 - 1758) was also a pastor, a renowned preacher, a missionary to the Native Americans, a biographer, a college president, a philosopher, a loving husband, and the father of 11 children.
-
-
Terrific book and well narrated
- By SBT on 01-22-11
-
The Book That Made Your World
- How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization
- By: Vishal Mangalwadi
- Narrated by: Peter Lawrence
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether you're an avid student of the Bible or a skeptic of its relevance, The Book That Made Your World will transform your perception of its influence on virtually every facet of Western civilization. Vishal Mangalwadi reveals the personal motivation that fueled his own study of the Bible. Learn how the Bible transformed the social, political, and religious institutions that have sustained Western culture for the past millennium, and discover how secular corruption endangers the stability and longevity of Western civilization.
-
-
loved this look on the Western World
- By DM on 11-03-20
-
The Democratization of American Christianity
- By: Nathan O. Hatch
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The half century following the American Revolution witnessed the transformation of American Christianity. The passion for equality, says Hatch, brought about a crisis or religious authority in popular culture, introduced new and popular forms of theology, witnessed the rise of minority religious movements, reshaped preaching, singing, and publishing, and became a scriptural foundation for 19th century American individualism.
-
-
Wow, eye opening
- By Dusty Jackson on 01-06-21
By: Nathan O. Hatch
-
American Demagogue
- The Great Awakening and the Rise and Fall of Populism
- By: J. D. Dickey
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1740, New England experienced a social earthquake in the figure of a 21-year-old preacher. People were abuzz with his stunning oratory, his colorful theatrics, and his almost ungodly sense of power and presence. When George Whitefield arrived in the small towns and hamlets that made up the American colonies, he proved to be much more than anything the residents could have expected. His reputation and growing legend had been built on his brilliant speeches and frightening tirades, and his fame now engulfed what would become America.
-
-
Fine history with bait and switch title
- By Kindle Customer on 04-06-22
By: J. D. Dickey
-
American Gospel
- God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In American Gospel (literally meaning the "good news about America"), New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham sets the record straight on the history of religion in American public life. As Meacham shows, faith, meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen, has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th.
-
-
what you weren't taught in school
- By Stanley on 06-12-06
By: Jon Meacham
-
The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
-
-
The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
-
A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Edwards is one of the most extraordinary figures in American history. Arguably the most brilliant theologian ever born on American soil, Edwards (1703 - 1758) was also a pastor, a renowned preacher, a missionary to the Native Americans, a biographer, a college president, a philosopher, a loving husband, and the father of 11 children.
-
-
Terrific book and well narrated
- By SBT on 01-22-11
-
The Book That Made Your World
- How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization
- By: Vishal Mangalwadi
- Narrated by: Peter Lawrence
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether you're an avid student of the Bible or a skeptic of its relevance, The Book That Made Your World will transform your perception of its influence on virtually every facet of Western civilization. Vishal Mangalwadi reveals the personal motivation that fueled his own study of the Bible. Learn how the Bible transformed the social, political, and religious institutions that have sustained Western culture for the past millennium, and discover how secular corruption endangers the stability and longevity of Western civilization.
-
-
loved this look on the Western World
- By DM on 11-03-20
-
The Democratization of American Christianity
- By: Nathan O. Hatch
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The half century following the American Revolution witnessed the transformation of American Christianity. The passion for equality, says Hatch, brought about a crisis or religious authority in popular culture, introduced new and popular forms of theology, witnessed the rise of minority religious movements, reshaped preaching, singing, and publishing, and became a scriptural foundation for 19th century American individualism.
-
-
Wow, eye opening
- By Dusty Jackson on 01-06-21
By: Nathan O. Hatch
-
A Book Forged in Hell
- Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age
- By: Steven Nadler
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published. In A Book Forged in Hell, Steven Nadler tells the fascinating story of this extraordinary book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired.
-
-
Well researched, comprehensive intro to Spinoza’s work.
- By Tom on 01-27-22
By: Steven Nadler
-
Nature's God
- The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
- By: Matthew Stewart
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy? Not only the erudite Thomas Jefferson, the wily and elusive Ben Franklin, and the underappreciated Thomas Paine, but also Ethan Allen, the hero of the Green Mountain Boys, and Thomas Young, the forgotten Founder who kicked off the Boston Tea Party. These radicals who founded America set their sights on a revolution of the mind. Derided as "infidels" and "atheists" in their own time, they wanted to liberate us not just from one king but from the tyranny of supernatural religion.
-
-
Excellent exploration of this subject
- By Caroline on 01-13-15
By: Matthew Stewart
-
The Year of Our Lord 1943
- Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis
- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear the Allies would win the Second World War. Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic thought the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. These Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others - sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world.
-
-
The Audible is a Train Wreck
- By John on 09-04-18
By: Alan Jacobs
-
Unbelievers
- An Emotional History of Doubt
- By: Alec Ryrie
- Narrated by: Andy Creswell
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Looking back to the crisis of the Reformation and beyond, Unbelievers shows how, long before philosophers started to make the case for atheism, powerful cultural currents were challenging traditional faith. These tugged in different ways not only on celebrated thinkers such as Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, and Pascal, but on men and women at every level of society whose voices we hear through their diaries, letters, and court records. Ryrie traces the roots of atheism born of anger, a sentiment familiar to anyone who has ever cursed a corrupt priest, and of doubt born of anxiety.
-
-
important and neglected insight of atheism
- By John Glemby on 10-01-21
By: Alec Ryrie
-
The Founding Myth
- Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American
- By: Andrew L. Seidel, Susan Jacoby - Foreword
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do "In God We Trust", the Declaration of Independence, and other historical "evidence" prove that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles? Are the Ten Commandments the basis for American law? A constitutional attorney dives into the debate about religion's role in America's founding.
-
-
Just 2 Issues
- By VIPER G on 09-01-19
By: Andrew L. Seidel, and others
-
Strange Gods
- A Secular History of Conversion
- By: Susan Jacoby
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this original and riveting exploration, Susan Jacoby argues that conversion - especially in the free American "religious marketplace" - is too often viewed only within the conventional and simplistic narrative of personal reinvention and divine grace. Instead, the author places conversions within a secular social context that has, at various times, included the force of a unified church and state, desire for upward economic mobility, and interreligious marriage.
-
-
Our own fabrications
- By David E. Felker on 01-03-17
By: Susan Jacoby
-
God and Ronald Reagan
- A Spiritual Life
- By: Paul Kengor
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ronald Reagan is hailed today for a presidency that restored optimism to America, engendered years of economic prosperity, and helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Yet until now little attention has been paid to the role Reagan's personal spirituality played in his political career, shaping his ideas, bolstering his resolve, and ultimately compelling him to confront the brutal - and, not coincidentally, atheistic - Soviet empire.
-
-
Depth of info
- By Jan Waldrep on 09-01-24
By: Paul Kengor
-
Freethinkers
- A History of American Secularism
- By: Susan Jacoby
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before, Freethinkers offers a powerful defense of the secularist heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of religion but on the bedrock of human reason. In impassioned, elegant prose, celebrated author Susan Jacoby traces more than 200 years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution.
-
-
Essential history of free thought in America
- By Clark Savage on 11-27-17
By: Susan Jacoby
-
Our Constitution the Way it Was
- By: Madalyn Murray O'Hair
- Narrated by: David Smalley
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In these transcripts of her American Atheist Radio programs, Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair tells us about Freedom of Religion in Colonial America, American Deism, Rewriting of History by Christians, The Christianity of our Founding as a Nation, Free thought in American Historical Documents, Free thought Organizations in the Early U.S., Thomas Paine - American Deist and Freethinker, Colonel Ethan Allen, James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, Jefferson's Idea of Religious Freedom, and Jefferson on Christianity.
-
-
Phenomenal!!!
- By Average Joe on 01-17-18
-
Edmund Burke
- A Genius Reconsidered
- By: Russell Kirk
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Russell Kirk has ingeniously combined into a living whole the private Burke and the public Burke. He gives us a fresh assessment of Burke, a statesman enjoying even greater influence today than in his own time. He lucidly unfolds Burke's philosophy, showing how it revealed itself in concrete historical situations in the 18th century and how Burke, through his philosophy, "speaks to our age".
-
-
Narration too Fast for Me
- By K on 01-16-13
By: Russell Kirk
-
Founding Faith
- Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America
- By: Steven Waldman
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a "Christian nation". Many on the left contend that the Founders were secular or Deist and that the First Amendment was designed to boldly separate church and state throughout the land. None of these claims are true, argues Beliefnet.com editor in chief Steven Waldman.
-
-
Eye-opening
- By Michael on 06-28-08
By: Steven Waldman
-
A Thousand Small Sanities
- The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
- By: Adam Gopnik
- Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto rooted in the lives of people who invented and extended the liberal tradition. Taking us from Montaigne to Mill, and from Middlemarch to the civil rights movement, Adam Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor simply another word for free markets, nor merely a term denoting a set of rights. It is something far more ambitious: the search for radical change by humane measures. Gopnik shows us why liberalism is one of the great moral adventures in human history.
-
-
Erudite and entertaining!
- By D. A. Vail on 05-20-19
By: Adam Gopnik