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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... noted, could compete with Christianity as the pulse of a new democratic society. The age of the democratic revolutions unfolded with awesome moment for people of every social rank. Not since the English Civil War had such swift and ...
... noted , could compete with Christianity as the pulse of a new democratic society . The age of the democratic revolutions unfolded with awesome moment for people of every social rank . Not since the English Civil War had such swift and ...
... noted the first field meeting in the county since George Whitefield , preaching by blacks and illiterate sailors , and servants angering their employers by frequenting night lectures " as in Mother [ Anne ] Hutchinson's time . " What ...
... noted : His weapons against Beelzebub were providential interpositions , wondrous disasters , touching sentiments , miraculous escapes , some- thing after the method of John Bunyan . . . . In his field exercises , at camp meetings , and ...
... noted that Francis Asbury was an entrepreneur in religion , a man who perceived a market to be exploited . The itinerant - based machine he set in motion was less a church in any traditional sense than " a military mission of short term ...
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 |