Mark Twain: Preacher, Prophet, and Social Philosopher(Spiritual Lives)

Mark Twain's literary works have intrigued and inspired readers from the late 1860s to the present. His varied experiences as a journeyman printer, river boat pilot, prospector, journalist, novelist, humorist, businessman, and world traveller, combined with his incredible imagination and astonishing creativity, enabled him to devise some of American literature's most memorable characters and engaging stories. Twain had a complicated relationship with Christianity. He strove to understand, critique, and sometimes promote various theological ideas and insights. His religious perspective was often inconsistent and even contradictory. While many scholars have overlooked Twain's strong interest in religious matters, others disagree sharply about his religious views--with many labelling him a secularist, an agnostic, or an atheist. In this compelling biography, Gary Scott Smith shows that throughout his life Twain was an entertainer, satirist, novelist, and reformer, but also functioned as a preacher, prophet, and social philosopher. Twain tackled universal themes with penetrating insight and wit including the character of God, human nature, sin, providence, corruption, greed, hypocrisy, poverty, racism, and imperialism. Moreover, his life provides a window into the principal trends and developments in American religion from 1865 to 1910.

Table of Contents:
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Persons and Works 1: Introduction 2: 1835-1860: Life Along and On the Mississippi 3: The 1860s: Journalism, a Pilgrimage, and Courtship 4: The 1870s: Hartford as a Religious Haven 5: The 1880s: In Hartford as In Heaven 6: The 1890s: A Troubled Time 7: The 1900s: Trying to Make Sense of Life 8: Conclusion Selected Bibliography

About the Author :
Gary Scott Smith taught at Grove City College from 1978 to 2017 where he chaired the History Department and coordinated the Humanities Core. He received Grove City's inaugural Professor of the Year award in 2000, and the next year he was named Pennsylvania Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He is the author or editor of seventeen books.

Review :
In his masterful analysis of Twain's life and thought, Smith examines Twain's changing theological views as well his attitudes toward the moral corruption and indifference of his day. More broadly, Smith's insightful study offers a window into the nature and role of Protestantism in Gilded Age American culture and its complex relationship with economic exploitation, imperialism, political greed, poverty, and racism...Crisply written and richly documented, Smith's engaging biography makes an outstanding contribution to American religious history. This book possesses two conspicuous strengths. First, it amply demonstrates the Jekyll and Hyde quality of Twain's approach to orthodox Christianity, Secondly, this book vividly displays the trifold social function of Twain's speaking and writings...Smith convinces the reader that Twain was indeed a social philosopher thinking and writing about the most pressing problems of his era. The book is an exciting revision of Twain as a thinker about religion, if not a religious thinker. This book is a solid guide to Twain's lifelong struggle with religious ideas. Smith's Mark Twain is well researched and written, and offers insightful analysis of Twain's views of religion throughout his personal life and illustrious career. Smith's book is rich with anecdotes about, and statements by, Mark Twain that often amuse, impress, and, at times, astonish. It is recommended for university, college, and public libraries.