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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... hand . For example , an upstart church such as the Freewill Baptists had almost as many preachers in the early republic as did the Episcopalians . Antimission Baptist preachers far outnumbered both Ro- man Catholic priests and Lutheran ...
... hand of Jabez Bunting kept British Methodism firmly grounded in traditional notions of authority and leadership . It was unthinkable to British church leaders that a radical and eccentric revivalist like the American itinerant Lorenzo ...
... hand , endured powerful buffet- ings early in the nineteenth century . Beset by radical attacks against the institutional church , by industrial strife and overt class conflict , the church battened down its conservative hatches ...
... hands . It was this upsurge of democratic hope that characterized so many religious cultures in the early republic and brought Baptists , Methodists , Disciples of Christ , and a host of other insurgent groups to the fore . The rise of ...
... hands - off position is sacrosanct because of fixed notions about the separation of church and state and because of the long - standing voluntary principle within churches . The rise of democratic Christianity in the early United States ...
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 |