Bindas’ new book explores the meaning and context of modernity in the 1930s—a period in American history when the Great Depression challenged the role of government and the capitalist economic system, along with almost every other aspect of society. Accepted notions and concepts, such as the very idea of modernity, also came under question during this period. Bindas argues that “the times demanded a new language, new solutions, and new meanings for terms that reflected back on America’s religious traditions” (2). More generally, the book seeks to examine how “the abstract idea of modernism became manifest, replicated, accepted, celebrated, and even worshiped in American society during the Depression era” (8).
The first chapter analyzes the thread of religion as a constitutive element—a mantle or an anathema to the 1930s understanding of modernity—describing how theologians, ministers, and other religious activists and intellectuals interpreted modernity. It demonstrates that words such as modernism...