The first in a three-volume history, this text identifies the indigenous roots of American liberal theology and uncovers a wider, longer-running tradition than has been thought. Taking a narrative approach the text provides a biographical reading of important religious thinkers of the time, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry ward Beecher, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charles Briggs. It notes that although liberal theology moved into elite academic institutions, its conceptual foundations were laid in the pulpit rather than the classroom.