In this brief but insightful trio of essays, James Turner maps the origins of the study of religion in America from the colonial period to the late nineteenth century. The first chapter examines the study of non-European religions up to the 1820s. In America, unlike Europe, the study of comparative religions began outside of the academy. Although many colonists were trying to convert native-Americans to Christianity, they demonstrated remarkably little interest in non-European religions. What they know about other religions was often steeped in error and prejudice. This reticence to study non-European religions, Turner suggests, represented a reaction, or over-reaction, to moderate Enlightenment attacks upon Christianity. Since critics of Christianity were looking into other religions, such studies were easily associated with the enemies of the faith. The second essay, covering the 1820s to 1870s, explores the emergence of serious attempts to study non-European religions with Unitarianism and Transcendentalists leading the way. Finding alternatives to Christianity in the hope of going beyond it or of reforming it fueled these studies. Scholars, like James Freeman Clarke, focused upon the sacred texts of other religions. This interest in canonical texts, consequently, shaped the future course of comparative religions for several decades. In the final essay, Turner surveys the late nineteenth-century emergence of the study of “World Religions” inside the American academy. He concludes with a brief but provocative analysis of William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1902). By focusing on the psychological experience generated by religion, Turner contends, James offered an alternative to the new discipline of comparative religion. In the short run, James' work had little impact upon the discipline but it helped open up new perspectives on American religious studies in subsequent generations. Turner is one of the most engaging writers in American history and these short essays are scholarly jewels. To those interested in the history of the academic study of religion in America, these essays provide valuable insight.