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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... tradition, station, and education eroded. Ordinary people moved toward these new horizons aided by a powerful new ... traditions of Western society. It was not merely the winning of battles and the writing of constitutions that excited ...
... traditions , or mass movements , that developed early in the nineteenth century : the Christian movement , the Methodists , the Baptists , the black churches , and the Mormons . Each was led by young men of relentless energy who went ...
... traditions that are intellectually respectable and institutionally cohesive . Yet American Protestantism has been skewed away ... tradition and a recurring source of new religious movements . Deep and powerful undercurrents of democratic ...
... tradition , station , and education eroded . Ordinary people moved to- ward these new horizons aided by a powerful ... traditions of Western society . It was not merely the winning of battles and the writing of constitutions that excited ...
... traditions sent American Christianity cascading in many creative directions in the early republic . Church authorities had ... tradition , and a call for reform using the rhetoric of the Revolution . The press swiftly became a sword of ...
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 |