Beyond Toleration : The Religious Origins of American Pluralism: The Religious Origins of American PluralismAt its founding, the United States was one of the most religiously diverse places in the world. Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Quakers, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed, Lutherans, Huguenots, Dunkers, Jews, Moravians, and Mennonites populated the nations towns and villages. Dozens of new denominations would emerge over the succeeding years. What allowed people of so many different faiths to forge a nation together? In this richly told story of ideas, Chris Beneke demonstrates how the United States managed to overcome the religious violence and bigotry that characterized much of early modern Europe and America. The key, Beneke argues, did not lie solely in the protection of religious freedom. Instead, he reveals how American culture was transformed to accommodate the religious differences within it. The expansion of individual rights, the mixing of believers and churches in the same institutions, and the introduction of more civility into public life all played an instrumental role in creating the religious pluralism for which the United States has become renowned. These changes also established important precedents for future civil rights movements in which dignity, as much as equality, would be at stake. Beyond Toleration is the first book to offer a systematic explanation of how early Americans learned to live with differences in matters of the highest importance to them --and how they found a way to articulate these differences civilly. Today when religious conflicts once again pose a grave danger to democratic experiments across the globe, Beneke's book serves as a timely reminder of how one country moved past toleration and towards religious pluralism. |
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Page vii
... faith. It elicited more rejection letters from nonprofit foundations, national funding agencies, and dissertation fellowship committees than I care to remember. But the rejections led to major revisions and the revisions to what I hope ...
... faith. It elicited more rejection letters from nonprofit foundations, national funding agencies, and dissertation fellowship committees than I care to remember. But the rejections led to major revisions and the revisions to what I hope ...
Page ix
... faith is compatible with tolerance. My own parents, George and Cathy Beneke, have always served as examples of hard work, piety, and charity. I have only myself to blame for having not practiced what they always preached and practiced ...
... faith is compatible with tolerance. My own parents, George and Cathy Beneke, have always served as examples of hard work, piety, and charity. I have only myself to blame for having not practiced what they always preached and practiced ...
Page 3
... faith could not have remained a mystery for long. Boston's Protestants would have been sensitive to the presence of a Catholic prelate in their midst. After all, until just a decade and a half before, they had celebrated ''Pope's Day ...
... faith could not have remained a mystery for long. Boston's Protestants would have been sensitive to the presence of a Catholic prelate in their midst. After all, until just a decade and a half before, they had celebrated ''Pope's Day ...
Page 12
... faith. Yet as the status of their churches improved, even these groups succumbed to the racism that stood in marked contrast to the religious equality that so many white Americans professed to embrace.13 We can locate still more ...
... faith. Yet as the status of their churches improved, even these groups succumbed to the racism that stood in marked contrast to the religious equality that so many white Americans professed to embrace.13 We can locate still more ...
Page 16
... faith and join one of the established Congregationalist churches nor stay out of Massachusetts. He remained as committed to the absolute truth of his faith as his persecutors were to theirs. So on March 14, 1661, William Leddra passed ...
... faith and join one of the established Congregationalist churches nor stay out of Massachusetts. He remained as committed to the absolute truth of his faith as his persecutors were to theirs. So on March 14, 1661, William Leddra passed ...
Contents
3 | |
15 | |
Americas First Great Awakening | 49 |
The Ordeal of Religious Integration | 79 |
The Rise of Religious Liberty | 113 |
Religious Pluralism in the Founding of the Republic | 157 |
Mingle with Us as Americans Religious Pluralism after the Founding | 203 |
Notes | 227 |
Index | 295 |
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Common terms and phrases
According American Anglican appeared argument authority Awakening Baptists become beliefs bishop Boston called Cambridge Catholics century Charles Christian church civil College colonial commitment common Congregational Congregationalists conscience Constitution contemporary continued controversy culture debate decades denominations discussion dissent diversity doctrines early ecumenical Education eighteenth eighteenth-century England equal essential established evangelical expressed fact faith Franklin Freedom Gazette George groups History important included individual institutions James John judge language late least less Letter liberal Light maintained majority Massachusetts matter meaning mind ministers never North noted once opinions Oxford particular Pennsylvania Philadelphia pluralism political practices preaching Presbyterians principles private judgment Protestant Quakers religion religious liberty remained represented Revolutionary rhetoric Samuel schools sects seemed Separation Smith Society suggested Thomas thought toleration traditional United University Press Virginia vols worship wrote York