Download or read book Women in American Religion written by Janet Wilson James and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cotton Mather called them "the hidden ones." Although historians of religion occasionally refer to the fact that women have always constituted a majority of churchgoers, until recently none of them have investigated the historical implications of the situation or v the role of woman in the church. But the focus of church history has been moving toward a broader awareness, from studying religious institutions and their pastors to studying the people—the laity—and the nature of religious experience. This book explores the many common elements of this experience for women in church and temple, regardless of their differences in faith.