Ministers' War

Set against the backdrop of a tumultuous 19th-century America, the narrative explores the clash between puritanical values and radical communal living. John W. Mears, a philosophy professor and Presbyterian minister, takes on the challenge posed by the Oneida Community, founded by John Humphrey Noyes, which practiced "complex marriage." Mears leads a determined effort to combat the community's controversial lifestyle, rallying religious and academic leaders in a campaign to confront what he sees as a moral threat to the nation.