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
Results 1-5 of 57
... appeal . By the middle of the nine- teenth century , Methodist and Baptist churches had splintered into a score of separate denominations , white and black . In total these movements eventually constituted two - thirds of the Protestant ...
... appeal , particularly in various forms of religious dissent , the Revolution quickened the pace . Those who defended clerical authority as the right of a gentry minority were pitted against rough - hewn leaders who denied the right of ...
... appeal of democratic firebrands . Religious populism has remained a creative , if unsettling , force at the fringes of major Protestant denominations . More than lawyers or physi- cians , American clergy have remained subject to ...
... appealed to two simple criteria : divine evidence in the soul and the effectiveness and power of demonstrated preaching . Freeborn Garrettson also interpreted Beecher's address as a direct attack upon the Methodists . He countered with ...
... appealed to the unedu- cated but left the professional clergy without a ready defense . The very ground rules of religious life were at stake . As preachers from the periphery of American culture came to 34 / 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 |
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The Democratization of American Christianity Nathan O. Hatch,Professor Nathan O Hatch Limited preview - 1989 |