The Use of Folklore in the Study of American Religion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.26800Keywords:
myth, folklore, american religious history, lived religionAbstract
In The Archive, we republish an article that, in hindsight, may have been ahead of its time with its prescience. Our pull for this issue is a 1982 piece by Richard E. Wentz where he discusses the idea that American folk traditions should be used as an introduction to lead students into the realm of American Religion. Wentz believes it is important for students to learn these folk tales in order to have essential knowledge about the religious lives of “everyday people,” knowledge which Wentz believes is not being taught in academia or in American religious institutions.
References
Ahlstrom, Sydney E. 1972. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Berger, Peter L. 1979. The Heretical Imperative. Garden City: Doubleday.
Cherry, Conrad. 1980. Nature and Religious Imagination. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
Dorson, Richard M. 1973. America in Legend. New York: Pantheon Books.
———. 1959. American Folklore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. 1971. American Folklore and the Historian. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Grimm, Brother’s. 1944. The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales. New York: Random House.
Gunn, Giles. 1981. New World Metaphysics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Vahanian, Gabriel. 1964. Wait Without Idols. New York: George Braziller.
