Between God and gold
Subtitle: Protestant evangelicalism and the Industrial revolution, 1820-1914
By: Robert A. Wauzzinski.
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1993
Place of publication: Rutherford, N.J; London; Cranbury, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: Evangelicalism -- United States -- History.; Protestant churches -- United States -- History.; Industrial revolution -- United States.; Capitalism -- Religious aspects -- Protestant churches.; Economics -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.
Description: Religion or ultimate belief is not perceived to be part of the public domain, and certainly not the origin of the affairs of commerce. The proper place for religious activities is thought to be in the home and place of worship, or some equally remote avenue of public life. But could worship and work be united at a yet more fundamental or religious level? Robert A. Wauzzinski addresses this question and the conventional wisdom that stands behind it in Between God and Gold by suggesting that religious or depth commitments are operative in these social movements. Evangelicalism and Industrialism, as world movements, are apparently different in their assumptions about life. The former view holds often to a supernatural, dualistic view of reality where components of divine intervention, emotional intensity, authority centeredness, and theological and ethical thought seem to dominate life. Industrialism, on the other hand, draws upon a naturalistic view of the world.^

Here, principles from a mechanistic, materialistic, Deistic, and a pragmatic, scientific secularity comprise the contours of the world view. However, can we speak of only two separated views, apart from any basic shared commitments, that do not affect each other? Wauzzinski argues that the urgency of this question forces itself upon us. He contends that both movements share deeper commitments: individualism, free will, a belief in progress, an increasingly materialistic view of culture, the equation of a theistic view of natural law with the structure of the market, and the efficacy of the "gain-give" principle form the foundational concerns for both movements. Wauzzinski proceeds to survey how nineteenth-century enthusiasts attempted to "incorporate" America under the aegis of Industrialism and related values. Accordingly, commitments, work, theology, culture - art, politics, education, and worship - were accommodated to meet the demands of Industrialism.^

The heart of Between God and Gold can be located in the survey of three representative nineteenth-century Evangelical figures: evangelist Charles Finney, scholar Francis Wayland, and philanthropist/clergyman Russell Conwell. The lives and thought of these notables are unfolded concretely, thereby showing how the Evangelical-Industrial synthesis occurred. Wauzzinski concludes the book by suggesting theological and economic alternatives, hoping to show in these examples that a third way between capitalism and socialism can be found. These possibilities are drawn from theoretical and practical sources and thus provide opportunities for greater social revitalization. An interdisciplinary methodology is employed throughout this work. The author works from the assumption that various fields of study, while analytically separated, do manifest a fundamental coherence.^

It is into this matrix that Wauzzinski probes the interconnections between Protestant Evangelicalism and the Industrial Revolution.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-268) and index.