Woodslane | Book - 9781421407883

Academic Inspection Copy

To Touch the Face of God

The Sacred, the Profane, and the American Space Program, 1957-1975

ISBN-13: 9781421407883
Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
By Kendrick Oliver
Price: AUD $97.99
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 16/03/2013
Format: Hardback 248 pages Weight: 0g
Categories: History of the Americas [HBJK]

Description

Table of Contents

Reviews

Google Preview

'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...'In 1968 the world watched as Earth rose over the moonscape, televised from the orbiting Apollo 8 mission capsule. Radioing back to Houston on Christmas Eve, astronauts recited the first ten verses from the book of Genesis. In fact, many of the astronauts found space flight to be a religious experience. To Touch the Face of God is the first book-length historical study of the relationship between religion and the U.S. space program. Kendrick Oliver explores the role played by religious motivations in the formation of the space program and discusses the responses of religious thinkers such as Paul Tillich and C. S. Lewis. Examining the attitudes of religious Americans, Oliver finds that the space program was a source of anxiety as well as inspiration. It was not always easy for them to tell whether it was a godly or godless venture.Grounded in original archival research and the study of participant testimonies, this book also explores one of the largest petition campaigns of the post-war era. Between 1969 and 1975, more than eight million Americans wrote to NASA expressing support for prayer and bible-reading in space. Olivers study is rigorous and detailed but also contemplative in its approach, examining the larger meanings of mankinds first adventures in 'the heavens.'

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Blasphemy of Going Up
1. A Power Greater Than Any of Us: Religion and Secularity in the Formation of the American Space Program
2. Signals of Transcendence: The Rise and Fall of Space-Age Theology
3. Into the Other World: Anticipations of Spaceflight as Religious Experience
4. Perhaps a Meaning to Us: The Apollo Missions as Religious Experience
5. Evil Triumphs When Good Men Do Nothing: Religious Americans and NASA in the Autumn of the Space Age
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index

""Oliver's well-research book sparkles with graceful prose and cogent insights... Also refreshing is Oliver's breadth of knowledge, which leads to pregnant thoughts... To Touch the Face of God is a stimulating and original examination of the long Sixties. Looking at America through this unique window'actually a spaceship's portal'reveals things I had not seen before.""

Google Preview content

Popular Subjects

Woodslane Online Catalogues

To Touch the Face of God

The Sacred, the Profane, and the American Space Program, 1957-1975