The Democratization of American Christianity or Reflections on the Revolution in France

The Democratization of American Christianity

Author: Nathan O Hatch

The half century following the American Revolution witnessed the transformation of American Christianity. In this book Nathan O. Hatch offers a provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the young republic, arguing that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful accors on the religious scene. The passion for equality, says Hatch, brought about a crisis or religious authority in popular culture, introduced new and popular forms of theology, witnessed the rise of minority religious movements, reshaped preaching, singing, and publishing, and became a scriptural foundation for nineteenth-century American individualism.

Hatch examines five distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged 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 about movement building as self-conscious outsiders, However diverse their theologies and church organizations. Hatch points out, they all offered the unschooled and unsophisticated compelling visions of individual potential and collective aspiration. More effectively than religious movements in other modern industrial societies, these denominations embraced people without regard to social standing and challenged them to think, interpret Scripture, and organize the church for themselves. The religious populism that resulted remains among the oldest and deepest impulse in American life.

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Reflections on the Revolution in France

Author: Edmund Burk

This new and up-to-date edition of a book that has been central to political philosophy, history, and revolutionary thought for two hundred years offers readers a dire warning of the consequences that follow the mismanagement of change. Written for a generation presented with challenges of terrible proportions--the Industrial, American, and French Revolutions, to name the most obvious--Burke's Reflections of the Revolution in France displays an acute awareness of how high political stakes can be, as well as a keen ability to set contemporary problems within a wider context of political theory.

The Times Literary Supplement

This edition of Burke's classic text aims to locate Burke once again in his contemporary political and intellectual setting. It reprints the text of the first edition of the Reflections, and provides extensive notes and a comprehensive introduction.

Booknews

Edmund Burke's classic text, which he appended over the years, was originally written in 1790 in the form of a letter to Richard Price. J.C.D. Clark provides us with a lengthy introduction and annotation to the original, unappended text which follows, in order to situate Burke and his canonical work within its original political and intellectual setting. Price's reply, and Burke's subsequent additions are included in appendices. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

	Editor's Preface
	Introduction: Edmund Burke: The Political Actor Thinking
	Reflections on the Revolution in France	3
	Rethinking Reflections on the Revolution in France	211
	Edmund Burke: Prophet Against the Tyranny of the Politics of Theory	213
	Edmund Burke and the Literary Cabal: A Tale of Two Enlightenments	233
	Why American Constitutionalism Worked	248
	Democracy, Social Science, and Rationality, Reflections on Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France	268
	Suggested Readings	291
	Glossary-Index	293