Citizens of Zion
Subtitle: the social origins of camp meeting revivalism
By: Ellen Eslinger.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Knoxville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 306
Subjects: Revivals -- Kentucky -- History -- 18th century.; Camp meetings -- Kentucky -- History -- 18th century.; Christianity and culture -- Kentucky -- History -- 18th century.; Revivals -- Kentucky -- History -- 19th century.; Camp meetings -- Kentucky -- History -- 19th century.; Christianity and culture -- Kentucky -- History -- 19th century.
Description: One of America's most enduring forms of public worship, the camp meeting had its beginnings at the dawn of the nineteenth century during the "Great Revival" that swept the newly settled regions of the young republic. The culmination of this phenonenon came in 1801 at Cane Ridge Presbyterian meetinghouse in Kentucky, where more than ten thousand people gathered for a week of worship and fellowship.

To trace the origins of the camp meeting, Ellen Eslinger follows Kentucky's development from its initial settlement in 1775 to the eve of the Great Revival. Citizens of Zion does more than explain a particular instance of religious revivalism; it explores the creation of a new form of worship that enabled people to relate more comfortably to a changing society through an intense collective experience.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-301) and index.
Table of contents: title: The revolutionary frontier in Kentucky; title: The rural economy of the early National West; title: A best poor man's country?; title: Ordering a heterogeneous society; title: A new political culture; title: Western settlement and national policy; title: Spiritual conditions on the eve of revival; title: Spiritual awakening; title: The social significance of camp meeting revivalism.