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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... social and religious change . Throughout this study , the University of Notre Dame and its Department of History have remained an immensely supportive academic home . I also appreciate the excellent service of the Microtext Department ...
... social graces , fam- ily connections , and literary education . These religious activists pitched their messages to the unschooled and unsophisticated . Their movements offered the humble a marvelous sense of individual potential and of ...
... social and political pressures that in Great Britain often forced Christianity and liberty to march in opposite directions . Such isolation made it possible for religious outsiders to see their own destiny as part and parcel of the ...
... social struggle with power and authority . Deep - seated class antagonism sepa- rated clergy from clergy . 3o The learned and orthodox disdained early Methodism's new revival measures , notions of free will , and perfectionism . But ...
... social structure of given communities . The age , gender , income , and kinship patterns of individuals and the population , size , and location of churches have been used to explain varying responses to revivalism . This approach makes ...
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 |