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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... England's in 1775 , was growing three times faster than England's in the early 18oos . By 1845 Americans outnumbered the English by five million . Despite this dramatic growth , life in the United States remained overwhelmingly rural ...
... England , on the other hand , endured powerful buffet- ings early in the nineteenth century . Beset by radical attacks against the institutional church , by industrial strife and overt class conflict , the church battened down its ...
... England clergyman , who resented uneducated and unrefined greenhorns presuming to speak in the Lord's name , put it this way : " They measure the progress of religion by the numbers who flock to their standards , not by the prevalence ...
... England in the century after 173o provides a superb laboratory for this kind of study . 34 The expanding republic , though , bore little resemblance to the New England town with its steady habits and social continuities . In a ...
... England . Innovative and forward looking , Dwight's disciples were re- vitalizing Calvinism as both an intellectual and a spiritual force . The collaborations of activists such as Lyman Beecher and Asahel Nettleton and theologians such ...
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 |