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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... clergy in the early republic ( chapter 1 ) , in estimating the age of death and length of service of Methodist itinerants ( chapter 4 ) , and in assisting with the appendix and the index . Finally , a word of gratitude to my family ...
... clergy serving Presbyterian denominations . The Congregationalists , which had twice the clergy of any other American church in 1775 , could not muster one - tenth the preaching force of the Methodists in 1845.} This book examines five ...
... clergy were confounded by their own gentility in trying to influence working- class culture , America exalted religious leaders short on social graces , fam- ily connections , and literary education . These religious activists pitched ...
... they denied the age - old distinction that set the clergy apart as a separate order of men , and they refused to defer to learned theologians and traditional orthodoxies . All were democratic or populist in the Introduction 19.
... clergy . 24 In the same vein , I focus on common developments rather than those characteristic of a given region such as the South , the " Burned - Over District , " the frontier , or of a local town or county . The choice to study ...
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 |