-
Age of democratic revivals
- Even though there
- were many issues that came from the time of the enlightenment, revolution, and
- denominational rivalries that undermined the impact of Christianity, the church
- still had a hude impact
- Memberships
- doubled between 1800 and 1860
- 1795-1865
- marked all the revivals across the states
- Black
- and White revivals (1801)
- Methodist
- movement was growing fast- by 1820 they had surpassed the Baptist
- Slaves
- were turning to Christianity-became their dominant religion
- The evangelical
- movement went against the secular theme that many people thought America was
- focused on.
-
Evangelicalism and American culture
- Mid-19th
- century- evangelical religion was a major force shaping dominant American
- values.
- USA was
- different from Europe because Europe focused on the strong anti church
- sentiments that came from the French revolution.
- In the
- US the religious views shaped the political and social values
- Most
- American protestants taught Calvinist views- free individual concept was the
- total opposite as it gave people the option of making a decision of choosing
- God
- John
- Wesley- founder of Methodism- developed ways of affirming the sovereignty of
- Gods grace that allowed more room for assuring potential converts that their
- choice for God was also decisive.
- Finney also talked about
- the sinners ability to make a choice for Christ.
-
Charles Finney
- Main example of the
- revival movement
- Most
- famous revivalist of the time
- School
- teacher and lawyer before he became a preacher all over the states
- He brought the
- revival movements to new areas
-
Education
- Evangelicalism
- taught rigorous moral disciplines that pushed people to be better and resulted
- in people succeeding financially
- The
- Methodist- became the most active denomination in founding colleges from
- 1840-1860
- State
- colleges required chapel attendance and taught bible and protestant doctrines
- Religious
- training was thought to be part of good education
- Charles Finney-
- began to study the audience and the other factors that affected his messages
- and revolutionized the way that mass communication techniques developed
-
Primitivism-back to the Bible movement
- They believed that
- they could renew their groups and going back to the literal basis of the bible
- and this would then result in the renewal of civilization
- Post-millenialism
- came from this
-
Missions
- American Board of
- Commissioners for Foreign Missions- leading mission entity of this era
- 1810-1870- layed
- the foundation for missionary work
-
Reform
- Missions brought to
- their attention the need to fight against the things that were going against
- their Christians foundations right at home. Alcohol, drugs, prostitution etc.
- Started
- missions as well as different societies that helped fight these-
- One of the main
- things was inclusion of women- Finney 1835- worked at the first coeducational
- college in America
-
Divisions within the evangelical camp
- Mid 19th
- century- Methodists and Baptists were the largest religious groups followed by
- Presbyterians and Congregationalists.
- Issues
- such as slavery caused division amongst the churches.
- The
- level at which slavery was performed went against the view of America as the
- strongest and most influential country based on their religious beliefs.
- The
- economic factor had a great influence in the way that people abolished slavery
- By the
- civil war, Christianity was the main religion for the blacks
- Richard Allen-
- Black preacher- African Methodist Episcopal Church
-
Native Americans
- During the colonial
- era, catholic missions to the Indians were the most extensive in areas that
- eventually became the US
- They resister
- Christianity in efforts to keep their traditions
-
Catholics
- Catholics were
- divided themselves
- By
- 1790-1830 the Catholic population grew almost ten times to about 300,000 and
- between 1830-1860 grew over ten more times to 300 million.
- By this
- time they were larger than any single Protestant denomination
- Irish-
- came after the famine and were seen by protestants as a threat to American ways
- The
- prejudices against irish catholics was almost as bad as prejudices against
- blacks
- Other
- big immigrant group was german catholics- tended to be farmers
- They were very
- proud of their language and thought that preserving their language was
- preserving their faith
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