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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... Methodist Episcopal Church ( courtesy of the Billy Graham Center Museum ) 12. " Negro Methodists Holding a Meeting in Philadelphia , " watercolor by Pavel ( Paul ) Petrovich Svinin , between 1811 and 1813 ( courtesy of the Metropolitan ...
... Methodist and Baptist movements among white and black Amer- icans . Starting from scratch just prior to the Revolution , Methodism in America grew at a rate that terrified other more established denominations . By 1820 Methodist ...
... Methodism veered sharply away from the course of British Methodism during these years . The heavy , centralizing hand of Jabez Bunting kept British Methodism firmly grounded in traditional notions of authority and leadership . It was ...
... Methodist and a radical . 14 The resulting social divide within the movement thrust the poor and radical on one side and the preacher in alliance with " the leading friends " on the other . 15 Dominant leaders of Victorian Methodism in ...
... Methodism's new revival measures , notions of free will , and perfectionism . But they despaired that the wrong sort of people had joined Methodism— people who rejected social authority's claim to religious power . 31 While the ...
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 |