Public Confessions Audiobook By Rebecca L. Davis cover art

Public Confessions

The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics

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Public Confessions

By: Rebecca L. Davis
Narrated by: Vayu O'Donnell
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Personal reinvention is a core part of the human condition. Yet in the mid-twentieth century, certain private religious choices became lightning rods for public outrage and debate.

Public Confessions reveals the controversial religious conversions that shaped modern America. Rebecca L. Davis explains why the new faiths of notable figures including Clare Boothe Luce, Whittaker Chambers, Sammy Davis Jr., Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, Chuck Colson, and others riveted the American public. Unconventional religious choices charted new ways of declaring an "authentic" identity amid escalating Cold War fears of brainwashing and coercion. Facing pressure to celebrate a specific vision of Americanism, these converts variously attracted and repelled members of the American public. Whether the act of changing religions was viewed as selfish, reckless, or even unpatriotic, it provoked controversies that ultimately transformed American politics.

Public Confessions takes intimate history to its widest relevance, and in so doing, makes you see yourself in both the private and public stories it tells.

©2021 by Rebecca L. Davis. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Religious Studies United States Church & State Americas Socialism

Critic reviews

”Davis succeeds at weaving biography and analysis and big-picture significance together in seamless fashion, making for an enjoyable as well as instructive read." (Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America)
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This audiobook was for the most part interesting and well narrated, but the author takes rather a cynical view of religion generally and of the conversion experiences she discusses. I think she gets a lot wrong in her discussion of the interplay between religion and politics. I am particularly troubled by her discussion of Chuck Colson, whose prison ministries have done an incalculable amount of good for prisoners and their families.

A rather cynical account

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