A Book Group Exploring the Diversity of Religion

Readings on Faiths Around the World is a book group that reads and discusses books covering the vast diversity of world faiths. Of course, the standard seven world religions will be included but we will also explore less well-known religious/spiritual groups. The only prerequisite needed for this group is a desire to learn more about the world’s religious traditions.

Our next book is Bright Circle: Five Remarkable Women in the Age of Transcendentalism, by Randall Fuller. Bright Circle presents the stories of five extraordinary women who challenged the culture norms of nineteenth-century America and more specifically of New England.  Although all were closely connected through marriage, family, or friendship with male transcendentalists only two were actually part of the male dominated group. Yet, all five, in their own way, wrote, discussed, and participated in transcendentalist’s ideas and experiments. Several of the women were involved in the abolitionist movement (before many of the men); some were active in the establishment of communal living experiments; and of course, the many were active in the Women’s Rights Movement.