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Zusatztext In Skepticism and American Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War, historian Christopher Grasso contends that a persistent dialogue between skepticism and Christianity indelibly shaped the antebellum United States. With an eye for colorful characters-mechanics, preachers, housewives, reformers, slaveholders, soldiers, and many more-Grasso makes his case in admirable if sometimes excruciating detail. Readers will learn of Methodist preachers whose private doubts mushroomed into publicly scandalous unbelief, of self-proclaimed infidels lurching into Christian faith, of competing churches that painted each other as engines of infidelity, of pro-slavery clergymen who linked infidelity and abolitionism to form the dominant (white) Christianity of the South, and of abolitionist preachers who shaped US nationalism by warning against the national sins of slavery and unbelief. Informationen zum Autor Christopher Grasso is professor of history at the College of William and Mary. He is the former editor of the William and Mary Quarterly and the author of A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut. Klappentext Between the Revolution and the Civil War, the dialogue of religious skepticism and faith profoundly shaped America. Although usually rendered nearly invisible, skepticism touched -- and sometimes transformed -- more lives than might be expected from standard accounts. This book examines Americans wrestling with faith and doubt as they tried to make sense of their world. Zusammenfassung Between the Revolution and the Civil War, the dialogue of religious skepticism and faith profoundly shaped America. Although usually rendered nearly invisible, skepticism touched -- and sometimes transformed -- more lives than might be expected from standard accounts. This book examines Americans wrestling with faith and doubt as they tried to make sense of their world. Inhaltsverzeichnis Note on Sources Introduction I: Revolutions, 1775-1815 1. Deist Hero, Deist Monster: On Religious Common Sense in the Wake of the American Revolution 2. Souls Rising: The Authority of the Inner Witness, and Its Limits 3. Instituting Skepticism: The Emergence of Organized Deism 4. Instituting Skepticism: Contention, Endurance, and Invisibility II. Enlightenments, 1790-1845 5. Skeptical Enlightenment: An American Education in Jeffersonian Pennsylvania 6. Christian Enlightenment: Eastern Cities and the Great West 7. Christian Enlightenment: Faith into Practice in Marion, Missouri 8. Revelation and Reason: New Englanders in the Early Nineteenth Century III. Reforms, 1820-1850 9. Faith in Reform: Remaking Society, Body, and Soul 10. Infidels, Protestants, and Catholics: Religion and Reform in Boston 11. Converting Skeptics: Infidel and Protestant Economies IV. Sacred Causes, 1830-1865 12. Political Hermeneutics: Nullifying the Bible and Consolidating Proslavery Christianity 13. Lived Experience and the Sacred Cause: Faith, Skepticism, and Civil War Epilogue: Death and Politics Appendix: Grounds of Faith and Modes of Skepticism Acknowledgments Notes References Index ...
