20th Century

The 20th century in Stranger in a Strange Land is a setting of sharp cultural contradictions and accelerating institutional change. It supplies the historical conditions against which Reverend Foster’s religious organization and Mike’s Church of All Worlds take shape, while a later discussion of art treats the century’s upheavals as a break between human storytelling and abstraction.

Cultural Contradictions

The novel describes America as divided between puritanical public laws and comparatively uninhibited private behavior. In the 20th century, it presents the country as simultaneously suppressing sex more vigorously than anywhere else on Earth and displaying an unusually deep interest in it. This tension helps explain why Foster’s movement could address desire through a public language of religious renewal while organizing a more private inner life around intimacy.

Foster is portrayed as a magnetic religious leader, neither celibate nor conventional in his sexuality. His wives and high priestesses participate in rituals that the narrative later connects to growing closer. The account places his methods within a wider religious history, but emphasizes that he developed an organization capable of expanding a movement that had previously been driven out of towns.

Foster’s Religious Organization

Foster combined organizational methods borrowed from freemasonry, Catholicism, the Communist Party, and Madison Avenue with material drawn from earlier scriptures. He presented the result as a return to primitive Christianity. The outer church welcomed anyone and allowed seekers to remain for years while enjoying some of its benefits; a middle church offered saved members forgiveness, economic advantages, and a sustained atmosphere of revival and happiness.

The middle church also supplied organized support when local authorities tried to suppress the movement. Fosterites from elsewhere could converge on a community, overwhelming its capacity to manage arrests and prosecutions. Foster adapted the organization after earlier setbacks so that legal actions against the group could be cast as religious persecution; the narrative says no conviction of a Fosterite as such was upheld by the national Supreme Court or, later, the High Court.

Behind the public church stood an unnamed Inner Church, whose members included the priesthood, lay leaders, keepers of records and keys, and policy makers. Foster personally selected candidates while the organization remained small. He required both spouses when a married person was considered, sought members who were dynamic and free of possessive jealousy, and maintained a balance in which men equaled or outnumbered women. The system made personal authority durable by giving it a structure of inner membership, selection, and religious advancement.

Art and the Century’s Changing Taste

A conversation about sculpture links the 20th century’s upheavals to a change in artistic priorities. Jubal argues that Rodin’s successors learned from his use of light, shadow, mass, and composition but neglected the storytelling and emotional exposure he saw in the master’s work. In his account, modern artists turned instead toward abstraction and dismissed narrative art as literary.

Jubal contrasts abstract design with art that evokes human feeling, arguing that the latter must engage an audience emotionally. The exchange gives the century a second, aesthetic meaning: it is not only a period of social and religious contradiction but also one in which the standards for what counts as art are contested.

New Religious Forms

The Church of All Worlds develops within the same broad historical setting but uses a distinct structure. Patty explains that she teaches introductory Martian and assists novice members; she and Dawn serve as High Priestesses. Their public standing as Fosterites helps them explain that the Church of All Worlds need not conflict with the Faith, and Patty uses Foster’s kiss and its miraculous companion from Mike to make the connection legible to prospective members.

Mike’s meetings combine performance with a graduated system of instruction. He presents limited miracles, including sleight of hand learned during his time with a carnival, and invites those who want to learn more to enter a circle. The church is organized into nine circles, and its leaders assess prospective members before inviting them to advance. Unlike Foster’s organization, this account places emphasis on learning Martian and undertaking effort to progress through the circles.

By the time public opposition intensifies, the movement has become more than a single congregation. Sam describes closing the Church of All Worlds, relocating, and reopening under new names, each time retaining a disciplined core and people who may rejoin later. He traces the change from Mike’s uncertain beginnings, aided by three untrained priestesses, to a stable Nest and a wider group of advanced pilgrims. In this way, the 20th century’s religious history is presented not as a settled background but as an ongoing contest over how movements survive, adapt, and gather adherents.