The Democratization of American ChristianityA provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic "The so-called Second Great Awakening was the shaping epoch of American Protestantism, and this book is the most important study of it ever published."—James Turner, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Winner of the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic book prize, and the Albert C. Outler Prize In this provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic, Nathan O. Hatch argues that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. Hatch examines five distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged early in the nineteenth century—the Christian movement, Methodism, the Baptist movement, the black churches, and the Mormons—showing how all offered compelling visions of individual potential and collective aspiration to the unschooled and unsophisticated. |
From inside the book
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... American History at Harvard University and the American Antiquarian Society . I am grateful for the support of these organizations , particularly since my original proj- ect , a study of Federalist ideology , quickly gave way to a ...
... American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity . It argues both that the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity , and that the years of the early republic ...
... Americans expanded tenfold.2 Amidst this population boom , American Christianity became a mass enterprise . The eighteen hundred Christian ministers serving in 1775 swelled to nearly forty thousand by 1845. The number of preachers per ...
... American Protestantism has been skewed away from central ecclesiastical institutions and high culture ; it has been ... American life . The Church in an Age of Democratic Revolution The American Revolution is the most crucial event in ...
... American Revolution and the beliefs flowing from it created a cultural ferment over the meaning of freedom . Turmoil swirled around the crucial issues of authority , organization , and leadership.5 Above all , the Revolution ...
Contents
3 | |
17 | |
49 | |
67 | |
The Sovereign Audience | 125 |
The Right to Think for Oneself | 162 |
Upward Aspiration and Democratic Dissent | 193 |
The Recurring Populist | 210 |
A Sampling of Anticlerical | 227 |
Notes | 244 |
Index | 305 |
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The Democratization of American Christianity Nathan O. Hatch,Professor Nathan O Hatch Limited preview - 1989 |