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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... Smith's Herald of Gospel Liberty (courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society) 8. Bishop Francis Asbury, by Charles Peale Polk, 1794 (courtesy of Lovely Lane Museum of the Baltimore Conference Historical Society) 9. “The Circuit ...
... Smith's Herald of Gospel Liberty ( courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society ) 72 74 8. Bishop Francis Asbury , by Charles Peale Polk , 1794 ( courtesy of Lovely Lane Museum of the Baltimore Conference Historical Society ) 9. " The ...
... Smith , the Latter - Day Saint ) went outside normal denominational frame- works to develop large followings by the democratic art of persuasion . These are inherently interesting personalities , unbranded individualists , who chose to ...
... Smith , who also was active in the protest against the established medical profession . 49 Although Smith and Thomson quarreled repeatedly and in the early 182os developed competing systems of natural medicine , both championed the idea ...
... Smith and Abner Jones , also experienced personal crises of authority with Calvinist orthodoxy . Each resolved their struggle for assurance by strip- ping away all authority but that of the individual . At the turn of the century ...
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 |