Religion After the Gods
Edwin H. Wilson and the American Humanist Association
The life and work of a religious humanist thinker
Cloth – $110
978-0-252-04958-3
eBook – $19.95
978-0-252-04874-6
Publication Date
Cloth: 03/30/2026
About the Book
Sometimes called America’s fourth religion, religious humanism emerged in the Midwest as a product of Enlightenment rationality, the Social Gospel, and the philosophy of pragmatism. John S. Haller Jr. examines religious humanism’s first fifty years alongside Edwin H. Wilson’s pivotal role in the American Humanist Association (AHA).Started by a group of Unitarian faculty and students, religious humanism applied the rituals of the theocentric universe of Judeo-Christianity to the non-theistic, anthropocentric universe of agnostics, altruists, humanitarians, and meliorists. Their beliefs found expression in the AHA, founded in 1941 with Wilson as the secretary and editor of its magazine. Wilson’s actions in these and other roles weighed heavily on the organization’s reputation, influence, successes, and failures. At the same time, his multifaceted work reflected the relationship between power and the possibilities inherent in the pluralistic and democratic heritage he pursued.
Rigorous and astute, Religion After the Gods reveals how the tensions between individual aspirations and bureaucratic constraints culminated in hopeful humanist practices.
About the Author
John S. Haller Jr. is an emeritus professor of history and medical humanities at Southern Illinois University. His many books include Michael A. Musmanno: Lawyer, Legislator, Judge, and Showman and Swedenborg’s Principles of Usefulness: Social Reform Thought from the Enlightenment to American Pragmatism.Reviews
“Humanism shaped the twentieth century and continues to shape the twenty-first, and John Haller’s meticulous history thoughtfully tells the story of the people who built our movement from the ground up—from the scrappy band of Midwestern ministers who forged a path for a faith based on reason and compassion, to the generations of people who undertook the challenging work to sustain and grow it.”—Fish Stark, Executive Director, American Humanist Association
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