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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... evangelical firebands went about the task of movement - building in the generation after the Revolution . Intent on bring- ing evangelical conversion to the mass of ordinary Americans , they could rarely divorce that message from ...
... evangelical fervor and popular sov- ereignty . It was this engine that accelerated the process of Christianization within American popular culture , allowing indigenous expressions of faith to take hold among ordinary people , white and ...
... Evangelical Magazine countered in 18o5 : " No person is warranted from the word of God to publish to the world the discoveries of heaven or hell which he supposes he has had in a dream , or trance , or vision . " 21 The early republic ...
... Evangelical religion prospered " largely because the price was right and the streets were filled with vendors . " 35 This book is organized topically and chronologically . It is divided into four sections , each consisting of two ...
... evangelical Calvinism a firmer foundation than it had known since the days of Dwight's grandfather , Jonathan Edwards . The founding of Andover Seminary in 18o8 stood as a strategic outpost for orthodoxy ; new maga- zines and voluntary ...
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 |