Experimental Theology in America

... this book is ecumenical history at its best.

~Books and Culture

Patricia Ward's book presents the definitive history of the Quietist legacy in America. It is well written and carefully researched, and it helps to explain the persistent experimental appeal of American revivalism.

~The Journal of Religion

Ward's careful handling of primary sources and her detailed reconstruction of Quietism's legacy within American Protestantism guarantee her book an authoritative place at the table in future discussions of American popular piety.

~Chad P. Stutz, University of Mobile, Religion and the Arts

Patricia A. Ward's Experimental Theology in America is a detailed and remarkably erudite study on the impact that Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon and François de Fénelon, the Archbishop of Gambray, had on Protestant devotional literature from the eighteenth century onward. Ward provides a comprehensive explanation as to why these two Catholic mystics have proven to be such an enduring force within Protestant, Evangelical, and charismatic circles in the United States, particularly among Methodists and Quakers.

~Christianity and Literature

This is an important book with an unusually convincing argument.

~Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

An immensely successful portrait of the sincerity and vigor of American faith.

~Thomas Pavel, Gordon J. Laird Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

Ward... demonstrates the strong influence of seventeenth-century French Catholic Quietism on Protestant American piety.... This book will prove compelling not only to readers interested in Quietism but also to those interested in religious history, devotional literature and practice, or women's writing.

~Leigh Pittenger, Rhodes College, Religious Studies Review