The Devil Is a Gentleman: Exploring America's Religious Fringe

I almost missed this intelligent book. Idiosyncratic, learned, brave, respectful, witty, delightful. Above all, JC Hallman is one open-minded thinker, and his ability to extend respect and truly investigate "the American fringe" on the one hand, and his elucidation of William James' work and life on the other, helped me to better understand the American religious tradition. A rollicking fun and yet educational read.

Warning: a serious study, but for the "educated general reader" rather than theologians or those looking for earnestly subversive fringe-cult press ravings. It's admittedly a quite misleading title for this book. The phrase comes from a William James quote that if the devil is a gentleman than God is certainly no such character. But, it may set up expectations that this is a salacious prowl around the netherworld of bizarre cults and sinister devotions. (Admittedly, the Satanists alternately tongue-in-goateed cheek and in deadly intent intersect with this stereotype of tweaking taboos.) Even with them, however, Hallman labors to excavate the scholarly foundation for devil-worship and its appeal within today's society. He takes his interviews seriously but knows when to lighten up or bear down. The result's a thoughtful, sustained comparison of James' pioneering efforts to understand religion as a human construct within the context of the past American century's diversity of newer religious (and one anti-religious) sects. The search starts with curiosity, as Hallman investigates, respectively, Uranian seekers of alien contact, revived Druids, and wrestling evangelicals. As he learns more about James' own thought, Hallman begins to ask deeper questions, from the heirs to LaVey's Church of Satan, and tests Jamesian tenets against the technocracy asserted by Scientologists. He begins to grow more wary, and perhaps restless, as he pits James' own elasticity of categories with the determinedly "anti-religious" faith community known as the American Atheists, at their national gathering. Then, moving towards a more deeply informed understanding of how beliefs shift and transform as a new self-definition of a specific religious sect emerges, he explores the progress and alteration of beliefs among neo-Pagans and Goddess worshippers in Seattle. Finally, Hallman meets both skepticism and acceptance of how a religious community must look into itself and ask hard questions if it wishes to survive without deceiving itself or distorting its credo. This emerges with the neo-pagans as they must adjust their earlier claims for pagan origins and supposed continuity in the light of recently discovered historical fact. He finds this self-scrutiny occuring most powerfully with the Orthodox Christian monks of New Skete, living among and inspired by their best-selling dogs. Hallman, a lapsed Catholic, intersperses a biographical arc that links a critical introduction to James with his own travels at America's "religious fringe." While his lack of stimulating chat with some of these groups makes for only intermittently engaging insights, Hallman is honest about those he interviews. If his informants are limited by their robotic recital of a "sales pitch," a sound-bite, or their own mantra, Hallman separates their sought-after beliefs from their mundane, calculated, or cynical presentation. He respects those who trust him enough to speak with him, and learns to disting

Having taught both theology and philosophy and having been a member of a monastic community, I approached JC Hallman's The Devil Is a Gentleman with a skeptical but open mind. William James had not been one of my most favorite studies in my educational experiences. In fact, the only class I ever received anything below a "B" in was a course on James. The man for me was way to complex; way to out of touch and simply put, strange. Once I began The Devil Is a Gentleman, things began to change as Mr. Hallman captured my heart and my mind in his wonderful combination of philosophy, biography and prose. I was caught in the rare situation of not wanting to put the book down, but needing to in order to spend time digesting all that JC was giving me! I was afraid Mr. Hallman was going to do nothing more than share the titillating side of the fringe movement in America. I was concerned from the title that Mr. Hallman would make a case for the Devil. And, I was also worried of being put to sleep with William James. However, to my sheer joy, JC was able to give a wide variety of the fringe movement their day in the sun, while balancing fact with personal opinion. His intimate sharing of his encounters with people such as Celeste Appel at Unarius, the healer Rhiannon, Chris and AJ and the rest of the CWF, Uncle Draggi, Dwayne, and Brother Stash at New Skete all draw you into the experience of what both James and Hallman would call today's fringe. (After finishing the book, I have made contact with New Skete to schedule my own visit.) But what was most delightful in the JC Hallman's construct was the parallel development of James' journey and Hallman's own journey. Not only do you come away with knowing both James' and Hallman on a deeper level, Hallman is able to relate James' complex philosophical and psychological concepts to life in twenty-first century America. By the end of the book, I was wishing I was back in the classroom again, so that I could assign Hallman's book to a group of new freshman as they began their "spiritual" journey. Hallman's book would be fantastic in "quest for meaning" or "fundamentals of belief" courses. But, just with many online academies today, JC Hallman's book is your private companion as you explore and begin your own deeper journey. This book is a must for anyone who has every questioned the existence of God; the relevance of religion or their membership in institutional church. Thanks to Hallman's true gift as a writer, one is able to ask important questions while being completely comfortable in experiencing life without words!