For many people, the 1960s was a period of reawakening. The political and cultural upheavals of the time had a tremendous effect on the spiritual lives of Americans, and American religion in its various forms and incarnations has not been the same since. In this epic survey, Robert Ellwood pulls together the changes that occurred in organized and disorganized religious life during this turbulent decade and sets out to show where those changes came from, following in a chronological manner the religious news and events of the day.

The author recalls the unusual role religion played in the 1960 and 1964 presidential elections, the stunning results of the Second Vatican Council, the place of religion in the civil rights and antiwar movements, the emergence of Death of God theology, and the impact of religion on the counterculture. He also interprets what happened in the country spiritually as an important and perhaps permanent shift in the character of American religion, from an institutionally determined to a more subjective experience of the divine.