Religious Enthusiasm in the New World

Religious Enthusiasm in the New World PDF Author: David Sherman Lovejoy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England and America, established society branded as "enthusiasts" those unconventional but religiously devout extremists who stepped across orthodox lines and claimed an intimate, emotional relationship with God. John of Leyden, Anne Hutchinson, William Penn, and George Whitefield all shared the label "enthusiast." This book is a study of the enthusiasts who migrated to the American colonies as well as those who emergedthere--from Pilgrim Fathers to pietistic Moravians, from the martyr-bound Quakers to heaven-bent revivalists of the 1740s. This study of the role of religious enthusiasm in early America tells us much about English attitudes toward religion in the New World and about the vital part it played in the lives of the colonists. Both friends and enemies of enthusiasm revealed in their arguments and actions their own conceptions of the America they inhabited. Was religion in America to be an extension of Old World institutions or truly a product of the New World? Would enthusiasm undermine civilized institutions, not only established churches, but government, social structure, morality, and the economy as well? Calling enthusiasts first heretics, then subversives and conspirators, conventional society sought ways to suppress or banish them. By 1776 enthusiasm had spilled over into politics and added a radical dimension to the revolutionary struggle. This timely exploration of the effect of radical religion on the course of early American history provides essential historical perspective to the current interest in popular religion.

Religious Enthusiasm in the New World

Religious Enthusiasm in the New World PDF Author: David Sherman Lovejoy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book Here

Book Description
In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England and America, established society branded as "enthusiasts" those unconventional but religiously devout extremists who stepped across orthodox lines and claimed an intimate, emotional relationship with God. John of Leyden, Anne Hutchinson, William Penn, and George Whitefield all shared the label "enthusiast." This book is a study of the enthusiasts who migrated to the American colonies as well as those who emergedthere--from Pilgrim Fathers to pietistic Moravians, from the martyr-bound Quakers to heaven-bent revivalists of the 1740s. This study of the role of religious enthusiasm in early America tells us much about English attitudes toward religion in the New World and about the vital part it played in the lives of the colonists. Both friends and enemies of enthusiasm revealed in their arguments and actions their own conceptions of the America they inhabited. Was religion in America to be an extension of Old World institutions or truly a product of the New World? Would enthusiasm undermine civilized institutions, not only established churches, but government, social structure, morality, and the economy as well? Calling enthusiasts first heretics, then subversives and conspirators, conventional society sought ways to suppress or banish them. By 1776 enthusiasm had spilled over into politics and added a radical dimension to the revolutionary struggle. This timely exploration of the effect of radical religion on the course of early American history provides essential historical perspective to the current interest in popular religion.

Religious Enthusiasm and the Great Awakening

Religious Enthusiasm and the Great Awakening PDF Author: David Sherman Lovejoy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
"Examines the causes and results of a great revival which attacked Old World traditions as out of place in eighteenth-century America. According to the revivalists, if the New World were to fulfill its promise as a land where God worked intimately with a chosen people, then stifling, time-worn practices must be reshaped into appropriate instruments for a vital, experimental religion. Eighteenth-century Americans were well aware of religious enthusiasm by the time of the Great Awakening in the 1740s. The churches, based on Old World institutions and customs, had played a central role in their colonial life. The proponents of the Awakening provoked a debate which not only had far-reaching effects but split most American colonists into two camps over its fundamental issue. Was the Revival a genuine outpouring of the spirit of God or was it rather a first-rate example of hot-headed enthusiasm traditionally considered false and presumptuous? Advocates of the Awakening were impatient with the confines of theology and church discipline and sought a more direct, intense, and personal relationship with God. Its leaders recognized the increasing influence of Enlightenment thought and the serious decline in religious practice in the Colonies. They urged a more active, personal, and emotional part in the spread of God's grace and warned of the consequences if religious complacency and disinterest continued to increase. In describing the sharp contention that took place during the Great Awakening and after, Professor Lovejoy has explored a major conflict in early American history whose legacy endures today. To many, the Awakening posed a threat to both religion and to the political and social stability of American society. Was the Great Awakening a burst of enthusiasm to be exposed and condemned as evil, or was it the beginning of a new religious spirit and technique that the New World experience demanded?"--Jacket.

The Public Universal Friend

The Public Universal Friend PDF Author: Paul B. Moyer
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501701452
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Amid political innovation and social transformation, Revolutionary America was also fertile ground for religious upheaval, as self-proclaimed visionaries and prophets established new religious sects throughout the emerging nation. Among the most influential and controversial of these figures was Jemima Wilkinson. Born in 1752 and raised in a Quaker household in Cumberland, Rhode Island, Wilkinson began her ministry dramatically in 1776 when, in the midst of an illness, she announced her own death and reincarnation as the Public Universal Friend, a heaven-sent prophet who was neither female nor male. In The Public Universal Friend, Paul B. Moyer tells the story of Wilkinson and her remarkable church, the Society of Universal Friends. Wilkinson’s message was a simple one: humankind stood on the brink of the Apocalypse, but salvation was available to all who accepted God’s grace and the authority of his prophet: the Public Universal Friend. Wilkinson preached widely in southern New England and Pennsylvania, attracted hundreds of devoted followers, formed them into a religious sect, and, by the late 1780s, had led her converts to the backcountry of the newly formed United States, where they established a religious community near present-day Penn Yan, New York. Even this remote spot did not provide a safe haven for Wilkinson and her followers as they awaited the Millennium. Disputes from within and without dogged the sect, and many disciples drifted away or turned against the Friend. After Wilkinson’s "second" and final death in 1819, the Society rapidly fell into decline and, by the mid-nineteenth century, ceased to exist. The prophet’s ministry spanned the American Revolution and shaped the nation’s religious landscape during the unquiet interlude between the first and second Great Awakenings. The life of the Public Universal Friend and the Friend’s church offer important insights about changes to religious life, gender, and society during this formative period. The Public Universal Friend is an elegantly written and comprehensive history of an important and too little known figure in the spiritual landscape of early America.

Critical Enthusiasm

Critical Enthusiasm PDF Author: Jordana Rosenberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199877378
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Critical Enthusiasm tracks the intertwined histories of religious radicalism and economic transformation in the long eighteenth century. Rosenberg situates the rhetoric of enthusiastic rapture in the context of the major institutional transformations of early modernity: the dispossession and plunder of the globe, the rise of finance, legal reform, and the administration of racialized labor.

The New World-religion

The New World-religion PDF Author: Josiah Strong
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian sociology
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Book Description


Mystic in the New World

Mystic in the New World PDF Author: Anya Mali
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004106062
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
In contrast to studies which portray Marie de l'Incarnation as a stellar representative of Catholic tradition, and against the scholarly trend in mysticism studies which assumes that mystical writing follows typical patterns, this book focuses on the mystic's fascinating encounter with the natives of New France and its enormous impact on her spiritual self-image.

The Homes of the New World

The Homes of the New World PDF Author: Fredrika Bremer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cuba
Languages : en
Pages : 664

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Book Description
Nolen's plans for development in Madison, Wisconsin.

Religion and the Marketplace in the United States

Religion and the Marketplace in the United States PDF Author: Jan Stievermann
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199361800
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
This collection of essays focuses on the diverse interactions between religious and commercial practices in U.S. history. Studying religion and the marketplace from various angles, each chapter offers insights into a long and intimate relationship between two aspects of American culture.

A Controversial Spirit

A Controversial Spirit PDF Author: Philip N. Mulder
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195131630
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
According to the author, during the era of awakenings and revival, the various denominations in the Southern States of the USA shared the same goal of saving souls but disagreed over the correct definition of true religion and conversion.

American Studies

American Studies PDF Author: Jack Salzman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521365598
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1124

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Book Description
This volume supplements the acclaimed three volume set published in 1986 and consists of an annotated listing of American Studies monographs published between 1984 and 1988. There are more than 6,000 descriptive entries in a wide range of categories: anthropology and folklore, art and architecture, history, literature, music, political science, popular culture, psychology, religion, science and technology, and sociology.