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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... divine and all the literary walkes of Life , the Jutical & Executive oficeers & all the rich who live without bodily labour . " What Manning found most galling was the conde- scension of these gentlemen : " the ordirs of men generally ...
... divine insight was reserved for the poor and humble rather than the proud and learned . One of the most prevalent assumptions about the religious history of the early republic is that its central story line involves a contest between ...
... divine honor , and bow , and cringe and scrape . " 85 After questioning how such differences came to exist between persons , Dow responded with vigorous Jeffersonian rhetoric : By what rule of right can one man exercise authority with a ...
... divine encounters convinced him that all persons would be saved , for which conclusion he was banished from the Warwick Baptist Church . Convinced by an angel that there was no existing church " that stood in the Apostolic rectitude or ...
... divine power in the audience . During a camp meeting on an island in Chesapeake Bay , Lorenzo Dow was interrupted by a woman who began clapping her hands with delight and shouting " Glory ! Glory ! " In a response that was the opposite ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
The Democratization of American Christianity Nathan O. Hatch,Professor Nathan O Hatch Limited preview - 1989 |