The Great Lawsuit

Fuller believes that all humans are capable of understanding divine love and rising to the state of perfection that characterizes this love. But this transformation doesn’t happen on its own; rather, each person who seeks it must work to make it happen. This work is an internal quest of sorts, one that is tied to self-reliance and self-determination. A person must be able to think independently and find answers to life’s great questions within, rather than relying on the assumptions and interpretations of others. An individual must know himself or herself well in order to know God.

According to Fuller, society should encourage individuals to do these things by giving them the freedom to make choices for themselves and by giving them opportunities to cultivate self-reliance and rich inner lives. She thinks 19th-century American society must be reformed to recognize the equality God has given to all people. To do so, people on the path to transcendence need to advocate for the abolition of slavery, suffrage for women and minorities, and the end of patriarchal traditions, such as insisting that women confine themselves to the domestic sphere.