Keywords
World’s Parliament of Religions, religious legitimacy and social science, religion and Western modernity
Abstract
The 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago served as a high-stakes arena where the boundaries of religious legitimacy were redrawn through the intentional adoption of social science vocabulary. Staged within the Neo-Classical architecture of the White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the event was more than a civil gathering; it functioned as a “Museum of Faiths” where religious traditions were curated, categorized, and evaluated against the perceived benchmarks of Western civilization. The physical environment of the Fair, a monument to industrial triumph, was built to display things that worked. The organizers demanded that religions demonstrate they were useful in the modern world, favoring faiths that could address the concerns of a rational society. Within this managed framework, the Parliament functioned as a sorting machine designed to separate the advanced from the superstitious.
Recommended Citation
Palmer, Erik P.
(2026)
"Co-opting Modernity: The Semantic Retooling of Faith at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions,"
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 55:
Iss.
1, Article 11.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol55/iss1/11
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