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Influences of religion on culture and society
Influences of religion on culture and society
Great awakening and american independance
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The novel, The Kingdom of Matthias: a story of Sex and Salvation in the 19th century America, written by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz is a fascinating story of how a man named Robert Matthews, or Matthias, believed he was the Spirit of Truth that would lead the world out of sin and lies; hence, building a Kingdom governed by a God as he considered himself. The authors of this book, Paul E. Johnson, and Sean Wilentz, remind us of a time where cults were a reality and people with beliefs often went to extreme and astonishing acts to express what they believed to be right, a time known as the Second Great Awakening. In the 19th century, North America was being swept away in a religious revival. Changes in America like the increase of market
In the first chapter of Nathan Hatch’s book, The Democratization of American Christianity, he immediately states his central theme: democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity. In proving the significance of his thesis, he examines five distinct traditions of Christianity that developed in the nineteenth century: the Christian movement, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons and black churches. Despite these groups having diverse structural organization and theological demeanor, they all shared the commonality of the primacy of the individual conscience.
The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America- Paul E. Johnson & Sean Wilentz
The story starts out introducing the two characters that will found the Kingdom. Elijah Pierson and Robert Matthews who are two individuals that come from very different households, but their upbringings are partially what brought them together. Robert Matthews, later to be known as the Prophet Matthias, was born into a farming family of strict religious churchgoers. Matthews was taught to believe that everyone was corrupt which helped fuel his later views of religion. This idea shaped how Robert would view and teach religion when he grew older. As a child Matthews believed as did many of his community that he could talk to spirits. The validity of this is still up for debate among historians, as it has never been stated in church records whether
This event changed the role of American religion during the early nineteenth century. Non-traditional religions such as Mormonism resulted from this religious revival movement as well. The religious revivals that emphasized individual choice of humans over predestination of God continuously shook New England Calvinism. The “cult of Matthias” was unlike any other religious groups during the time period.
The short story, The Rabbi in the Attic, written by Eileen Pollack (Curtis, 1998), enlightens the reader to the difficulties experienced by religious congregations as a whole, in a very regimented and legalistic form or religion. Pollack’s story also alluded to the fact of how ordered types of religions can lead to conflicting views and ideals from within the congregation over the same God (Schultz, 2015). The theme of The Rabbi in the Attic is undeniably about the harmful effects on congregations that adhere to ritual, tradition, stringent religious law and the emotional upheaval that follows dogma (Schultz, 2015). The Biblical allusion in The Rabbi in the Attic was highlighted by the characters and mimicked the adversity experienced by Jesus Christ with the Scribes and Pharisees in the New Testament gospels. Rabbi Heckler could be considered representative of the high priest Caiaphas (Pollack, 1998, p. 237) in enforcing the law, and the congregation, as those being oppressed by the law and wandering in darkness (Pollack, 1998, p. 240). After Rabbi Heckler’s ouster enters orthodox Rabbi Marion Bloomgareten, who represented the essence of reform similar to Jesus Christ (Pollack, 1998, p. 255). Like Christ, Rabbi Bloomgarten
Robert Laurence Moore has written a delightful, enlightening, and provocative survey of American church history centered around the theme of "mixing" the "sacred" with the "secular" and vice versa. The major points of conversation covered include the polarization caused by the public display of religious symbols, the important contribution that women and Africans have made to the American religious mosaic, the harmony and friction that has existed between science and religion, the impact of immigration on religious pluralism, and the twin push toward the union and separation of religion and politics.
· Lewis, CS. Mere Christianity. New York: Doubleday, 1982. · McBride, David. The Story of the Church.
The thesis of this book is that George Whitefield (1714-1770) changed the nature of Christianity by promoting and conducting mass revivals that exploited the weaknesses of institutional Christianity.
He was a man whose very words struck fear into the hearts of his listeners. Acknowledged as one of the most powerful religious speakers of the era, he spearheaded the Great Awakening. “This was a time when the intense fervor of the first Puritans had subsided somewhat” (Heyrmen 1) due to a resurgence of religious zeal (Stein 1) in colonists through faith rather than predestination. Jonathan Edwards however sought to arouse the religious intensity of the colonists (Edwards 1) through his preaching. But how and why was Edwards so successful? What influenced him? How did he use diction and symbolism to persuade his listener, and what was the reaction to his teachings? In order to understand these questions one must look at his life and works to understand how he was successful. In his most influential sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards’ persuasive language awakened the religious fervor that lay dormant in colonial Americans and made him the most famous puritan minister of the Great Awakening in North America.
This mass enterprise is reviewed through five traditions in the early nineteenth century: the Christian movement, the Methodists, the Baptists, the black churches, and the Mormons. Hatch explains that these major American movements were led by young men who shared “an ethic of unrelenting toil, a passion for expansion, a hostility to orthodox belief and style, a zeal for religious reconstruction, and a systematic plan to realize their ideals” (4). These leaders changed the scope of American Christianity by orientating toward democratic or populist ideals. Their movements offered both individual potential and collective aspiration, which were ideas ready to be grasped by the young and booming population. These early leaders had a vision of a faith that disregarded social standing, and taught all to think, interpret, and organize their faith for themselves. It was a faith of “religious populism, reflecting the passions of ordinary people and the charisma of democratic movement-builders” (5).
Gaustad, Edwin S. The Religious History of America: The Heart of the American Story from Colonial Times to Today. N.p.: HarperOne, 2004. Print.
The Great Awakening was an event that occurred in the early 18th century characterized by fervent and enthusiastic worship in a series of revivals that spread throughout the American colonies. This event was noted for the growth of the Christian church and the promotion of traditional Puritan views on the issues of election and salvation. The success of the Great Awakening rests in the pluralistic, ecumenical, and sociological efforts of men from various theological backgrounds, yet espousing a unified message of repentance, forgiveness, and hope for the masses. Research available on this period ranges from 18th century newspapers and letters to current literary criticism of discourse of the period. However, the resources selected for this review can be placed into three categories: 1) ministers 2) sermons and correspondence and 3) historic, sociological, and religious significance.
In the essay, “The Second Great Awakening” by Sean Wilentz explains the simultaneous events at the Cane Ridge and Yale which their inequality was one-sided origins, worship, and social surroundings exceeded more through their connections that was called The Second Great Awakening also these revivals were omen that lasted in the 1840s a movement that influences the impulsive and doctrines to hold any management. Wilentz wraps up of the politics and the evangelizing that come from proceeding from the start, but had astounding momentum during 1825.The advantage of the Americans was churched as the evangelizing Methodists or Baptists from the South called the New School revivalist and the Presbyterians or Congregationalists from the North that had a nation of theoretical Christians in a mutual culture created more of the Enlightenment rationalism than the Protestant nation on the world. The northerners focused more on the Second Great Awakening than the South on the main plan of the organization.
Early Christian and Byzantine art started after Jesusí death in the first century ranging and ending to the fourth century AD. The art produced during this period was secretive because Christianity was not a formal religion but as a cult; the Romans and rest of Europe persecuted Christians so the artist disguised their work with symbols and hints of Christian aspects. Christianity was the first cult to not involve rituals of sacrifice of animals and refused to worship an Emperor causing the Roman Empire to make Christianity illegal. Byzantine art excelled in the Justinian period in the east during 520-540 AD. The art was produced in Ravenna, Byzantine, Venice, Sicily, Greece, and Russia. The difference between Christian and Byzantine is that Christian was earth beyond realism and Byzantine was more spiritual than worldly style. This art period was sectioned off into three different periods. The first was persecution from the first to the third century. The second was due to Constantine making Christianity legal in the fourth century. The last period is known as New Christian style starting in the fifth century. Most of the art from this period was frescoes, mosaics, and architecture.
William McLaughlin notes in his book Revivals, Awakenings and Reform that there have been several “Awakenings” in American religious history ,and that not all of these moments of renewal resembled the fiery preaching frenzies of the famed eighteenth century. Each “Awakening” had at its core a specific issue it was addressing. The issues in question could be spiritual declension (first Great Awakening), national back-sliding (second Great Awakening), biblical interpretation and liberalism (third Great Awakening), or American identity and progressivism (fourth Great Awakening). Thus, it is perhaps my own limitations that bristle at the idea of preaching the n...