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 71
... AUDIENCE 5. The Sovereign Audience xi xiii 3 17 49 67 125 The Triumph of Vernacular Preaching ; Creating a Mass Religious.
... audiences . Historians have often overlooked the flood of print produced by per- sons depicted as stalwarts of enthusiasm and anti - intellectualism . 23 Yet this material offers an unusual opportunity to enter minds unlike our own , to ...
... audience - oriented inter- pretation has only limited value , particularly in studying the rise of dissi- dent movements whose preachers and audiences were characteristically mobile . In a climate of volatile audiences and innovative ...
... audience resulted in values of the audience shaping the message's contours . The quest for unity that drove people to discard formal theology for the Scriptures drove them further asunder . Yet Americans continue to maintain their right ...
... audiences . " 1o Goodrich recalls the grave concern of his father and other respectable clergymen as they watched people straying into new folds and identifying with commoners who preached . His account of the preaching of one " gifted ...
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 |