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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... Preachers and the Flowering of Afro - American Christianity ; The Populist Vision of Joseph Smith III . AUDIENCE 5. The Sovereign Audience xi xiii 3 17 49 67 125 The Triumph of Vernacular Preaching ; Creating a Mass Religious.
... preachers per capita more than tripled ; the colonial legacy of one minister per fifteen hundred inhabitants became one per five hundred . This greater preaching density was remarkable given the spiraling population and the restless ...
... preachers realized that their preaching privileges depended upon their continued loyalty to the civil government . Officials continued to remind them that religious liberty was a privilege dissenters enjoyed at the discretion of ...
... preaching the gospel . " Denying the right of church authority to coerce the individual , Dow appealed to two simple criteria : divine evidence in the soul and the effectiveness and power of demonstrated preaching . Freeborn Garrettson ...
... preaching by blacks and illiterate sailors , and servants angering their employers by frequenting night lectures ... preach the gospel , and to go on , relying on their inward call , and neglecting almost every ministerial qualification ...
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 |