The democratization of American Christianity /Nathan O. Hatch.

I. Context. Introduction: Democracy and Christianity. The church in an age of democratic revolution; A passion for equality; Populist leaders and democratic movements -- The crisis of authority in popular culture. Ferment over who should rule at home; Revolt against the professions; Backcountry dissent; Blurring of worlds; Individualization of conscience; Inversion of authority. II. Mass movements. Storming heaven by the back door. Wreckers, architects, and builders; The withering of establishments; "A sea of sectarian rivalries". Thundering legions. The Christian movement; The Spartan mission of Francis Asbury; The independent conscience of John Leland; Black preachers and the flowering of Afro-American Christianity; The populist vision of Joseph Smith. III. Audience. The Sovereign audience. The triumph of Vernacular preaching; Creating a mass religious culture in print; Inventing American gospel music. The right to think for oneself. The quest for the ancient order; The crusade against Calvinist orthodoxy and control; Sola scriptura; America, democracy, and the millennium. IV. Legacy. Upward aspiration and democratic dissent. The leaven of democratic persuasions; The allure of respectability; Firebrands of democracy. Epilogue: The recurring populist impulse in American Christianity. Redefining the second great awakening: A note on the study of Christianity in the early republic. Appendix: A sampling of anticlerical and anti-Calvinist Christian verse.

"In this prize-winning book Nathan O. Hatch offers a provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic, arguing that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. Hatch examines five distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged early in the nineteenth century - the Christian movement, Methodism, the Baptist movement, the black churches, and the Mormons - showing how all offered compelling visions of individual potential and collective aspiration to the unschooled and unsophisticated"--Publisher description.

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