I’ve been thinking about religion in my home state. I’ve noticed there’s not much by way of a broad overview of the religious history of the state, so I’ve been collecting resources. Here’s a timeline and a few links that I’ve gathered thus far:
Timeline: Religion in California
1767-1784: Junipero Serra in Spanish California
1769-1821: Spanish Colonial Period
1769: Founding of Mission San Diego de Alcalá (SD)
1776: Founding of Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores) (SF)
1849: The ‘Gold Rush’ begins
Sept. 9, 1850: California Statehood
1851: Temple Israel founded in Stockton (longest continuous Jewish community)
1852: Tin How (Tianhou) Temple founded in San Francisco (oldest Daoist temple?).
1857: Sze-Yap Temple founded in San Francisco (first Buddhist temple) (SF)
Oct. 9, 1890-Sep. 27, 1944: Aimee Semple McPherson (LA)
1889: Temple Beth Sholom founded in San Leandro (oldest standing synagogue)
1900: The ‘Old Temple’ founded in San Francisco (first Hindu temple) (SF)
Apr. 9, 1906-1915: The Azusa Street Revival (LA)
Apr. 18, 1906: 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Oct. 24, 1912: Gurdwara Sahib Stockton founded in Stockton (first Sikh temple)
March 31, 1927-April 23rd, 1993: Caesar Chavez
1947: Founding of Fuller Theological Seminary
1949: Billy Graham’s Los Angeles Crusade
1952: Islamic Center of Southern California established (oldest mosque in California?)
1962: Graduate Theological Union (GTU) founded in Berkeley
1964: The Council on Religion and the Homosexual (i.e. beginning of the California Gay Rights Movement) (SF)
1965: Founding of the John Coltrane Church (N.L. Baham III,The Coltrane Church) (SF)
July, 1965: Jim Jones moves The Peoples Temple to Redwood Valley, CA
Apr. 30, 1966: Founding of the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey (SF)
1968: The ‘Gold Base’ headquarters for the Church of Scientology founded in San Jacinto (LA)
February 15, 1968: Caesar Chavez begins his 25-day water-only fast in Delano
1970: Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple open buildings in San Francisco and Los Angeles (SF) (LA)
March, 1997: Heaven’s Gate suicide (Heaven’s Gate’s website) (SD)
May 21st, 2011: Harold Camping’s predicted day for the return of Christ
Online Resources:
USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture
Clifton L. Holland’s ‘An Overview of Religion in Los Angeles from 1850 to 1930′
Articles:
Eldon G. Ernst, ‘The Emergence of California in American Religious Historiography’
Books:
Theology and California: Theological Reflections on California’s Culture
Journals:
LePort 