The origins of American religious nationalism
By: Sam Haselby
Series: Religion in America; Religion in America series (Oxford University Press)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9780199329571
Subjects: National characteristics; American National characteristics; Nationalism; Church and state; History; Christianity and politics; Christianity
Description: "Sam Haselby offers a new and persuasive account of the role of religion in the formation of American nationality, showing how a contest within Protestantism reshaped American political culture and led to the creation of an enduring religious nationalism. Following U.S. independence, the new republic faced vital challenges, including a vast and unique continental colonization project undertaken without, in the centuries-old European senses of the terms, either "a church" or "a state." Amid this crisis, two distinct Protestant movements arose: a popular and rambunctious frontier revivalism; and a nationalist, corporate missionary movement dominated by Northeastern elites. The former heralded the birth of popular American Protestantism, while the latter marked the advent of systematic Protestant missionary activity in the West. The explosive economic and territorial growth in the early American republic, and the complexity of its political life, gave both movements opportunities for innovation and influence. This book explores the competition between them in relation to major contemporary developments-political democratization, large-scale immigration and unruly migration, fears of political disintegration, the rise of American capitalism and American slavery, and the need to nationalize the frontier. Haselby traces these developments from before the American Revolution to the rise of Andrew Jackson. His approach illuminates important changes in American history, including the decline of religious distinctions and the rise of racial ones, how and why "Indian removal" happened when it did, and with Andrew Jackson, the appearance of the first full-blown expression of American religious nationalism." --Book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The powers of the earth : secularism and American nationalism; title: "The songs of a nation" : the Connecticut wits and the new English empire; title: To raise a holy people, wear no slouched hat : the Methodist settlement of the frontier; title: Sovereignty and salvation on the frontier of the early republic; title: "The love of order and righteous laws" : early national liberals and the missions movement; title: "A complete chain of communication" : religious literature and Protestant nation-building; title: A monster and the wandering savage : the resolution of frontier revivalism and national evangelism.