Beyond Toleration : The Religious Origins of American Pluralism: The Religious Origins of American PluralismAt its founding, the United States was one of the most religiously diverse places in the world. Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Quakers, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed, Lutherans, Huguenots, Dunkers, Jews, Moravians, and Mennonites populated the nations towns and villages. Dozens of new denominations would emerge over the succeeding years. What allowed people of so many different faiths to forge a nation together? In this richly told story of ideas, Chris Beneke demonstrates how the United States managed to overcome the religious violence and bigotry that characterized much of early modern Europe and America. The key, Beneke argues, did not lie solely in the protection of religious freedom. Instead, he reveals how American culture was transformed to accommodate the religious differences within it. The expansion of individual rights, the mixing of believers and churches in the same institutions, and the introduction of more civility into public life all played an instrumental role in creating the religious pluralism for which the United States has become renowned. These changes also established important precedents for future civil rights movements in which dignity, as much as equality, would be at stake. Beyond Toleration is the first book to offer a systematic explanation of how early Americans learned to live with differences in matters of the highest importance to them --and how they found a way to articulate these differences civilly. Today when religious conflicts once again pose a grave danger to democratic experiments across the globe, Beneke's book serves as a timely reminder of how one country moved past toleration and towards religious pluralism. |
From inside the book
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Page 8
... Church , " " A French Calvinist Church , " and a " Jews Synagogue . " 118 These kind of denominational calculations ... England , large concentrations of Presbyterians in the Middle Colonies , and large concentrations of Anglicans in the ...
... Church , " " A French Calvinist Church , " and a " Jews Synagogue . " 118 These kind of denominational calculations ... England , large concentrations of Presbyterians in the Middle Colonies , and large concentrations of Anglicans in the ...
Page 17
... Church of England than Rhode Island was established as a dissenting refuge from Massachusetts Puritans . The Quakers who were hung on Boston Common between 1659 and 1661 illustrated what might happen to those who challenged the ...
... Church of England than Rhode Island was established as a dissenting refuge from Massachusetts Puritans . The Quakers who were hung on Boston Common between 1659 and 1661 illustrated what might happen to those who challenged the ...
Page 18
... Church's grip on western Europe. Condemning the mediation of priests, the corruption of bishops, and the abuse of the sacraments, the German monk Martin Luther fomented a ... Church of England for good and prescribed 18 beyond toleration.
... Church's grip on western Europe. Condemning the mediation of priests, the corruption of bishops, and the abuse of the sacraments, the German monk Martin Luther fomented a ... Church of England for good and prescribed 18 beyond toleration.
Page 19
... Church of England for good and prescribed penalties for nonconformity. Like other seventeenth-century states, England punished a number of religion-related offenses, including blasphemy, atheism, and her- esy. It also prohibited sincere ...
... Church of England for good and prescribed penalties for nonconformity. Like other seventeenth-century states, England punished a number of religion-related offenses, including blasphemy, atheism, and her- esy. It also prohibited sincere ...
Page 20
... Church of England throughout the region . The accoutrements of a typical church - state alliance remained in place through much of the eighteenth century in colonial Vir- ginia . Parish vestries were entitled to collect taxes from their ...
... Church of England throughout the region . The accoutrements of a typical church - state alliance remained in place through much of the eighteenth century in colonial Vir- ginia . Parish vestries were entitled to collect taxes from their ...
Contents
3 | |
15 | |
Americas First Great Awakening | 49 |
The Ordeal of Religious Integration | 79 |
The Rise of Religious Liberty | 113 |
Religious Pluralism in the Founding of the Republic | 157 |
Mingle with Us as Americans Religious Pluralism after the Founding | 203 |
Notes | 227 |
Index | 295 |
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Common terms and phrases
African Americans Anglican anti-Catholicism appeared authority Awakening Backus Baptists beliefs bishop Boston Cambridge Carroll Catholicism century Chandler Chapel Hill Charles Charles Chauncy Chauncy Christian Church of England civil clergymen College colonial America common Congregational Congregationalists Constitution contemporary controversy culture debate decades denominations discourse dissent doctrines Early American ecumenical eighteenth eighteenth-century Americans Episcopal evangelical faith Franklin George Whitefield Gilbert Tennent groups Hannah Adams Harvard University Press History institutions interdenominational Isaac Backus itinerant James John Jonathan late eighteenth-century liberal liberty of conscience Light Presbyterians Livingston Madison Massachusetts midcentury ministers Mormons Native Americans North Carolina Press noted opinions opponents Oxford University Press Pennsylvania persecution Philadelphia political preaching Presbyterians principles private judgment Protestant Quakers religion religious differences religious diversity religious liberty religious pluralism revivals Revolutionary rhetoric right of private Samuel Sandemanians sects sermon Smith Society Stiles Synod Tennent theological Thomas toleration traditional Virginia Gazette vols Whitefield William worship wrote York