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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... Christ, from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 14, 1883 (courtesy of the Billy Graham Center Museum) 7. Opening page of Elias Smith's Herald of Gospel Liberty (courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society) 8. Bishop Francis ...
... Christ , from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper , July 14 , 1883 ( courtesy of the Billy Graham Center Museum ) 54 7. Opening page of Elias Smith's Herald of Gospel Liberty ( courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society ) 72 74 8 ...
... Christ , had an estimated four thousand preachers , equalling the number of clergy serving Presbyterian denominations . The Congregationalists , which had twice the clergy of any other American church in 1775 , could not muster one ...
... Christ , and a host of other insurgent groups to the fore . The rise of evangelical Christianity in the early republic is , in some measure , a story of the success of common people in shaping the culture after their own priorities ...
... instructed by Christ himself for three years " to supply the deficiency of an education . " 4 At the opening of Andover Seminary a few years earlier , Timothy Dwight had sounded the same note of alarm . While 18 / Context.
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 |
Other editions - View all
The Democratization of American Christianity Nathan O. Hatch,Professor Nathan O Hatch Limited preview - 1989 |