Perfectionist Politics

by Strong, Douglas M.

• ISBN13: 9780815627937
• ISBN10: 0815627939
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr

Summary

Perfectionist Politics is the story of an important, but overlooked, antebellum reform movement: ecclesiastical abolitionism. Douglas M. Strong examines those radical evangelical Protestants who seceded from proslavery denominations and reorganized themselves into independent antislavery congregations.

Mirroring political abolitionist activity -- particularly in the "burned-over district" of New York State -- the ecclesiastical abolitionists formed a network of abolition churches and became the primary focus of Liberty Party electioneering strategy.

Ecclesiastical abolitionists justified this clear connection between church and state through the ethical experience of evangelical perfectionism. A vote for the Liberty Party became a mark of one's holiness. Perfectionist concepts also provided ecclesiastical abolitionists with a theological compass that enabled them to steer a middle course between two poles of U.S. democratic society -- the need for institutional structure on one hand and the desire for greater individual liberty on the other.

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Author Biography

Douglas M. Strong is professor of the history of Christianity at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix	(2)
Tables and Maps	xi	(2)
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(11)
1. A Middle Course The Mediating Role of Evangelical Perfectionism	12	(32)
2. Spiritual Democracy The Development of Antislavery Church Reform	44	(22)
3. Liberty Party Theology Perfectionist Undergirding for Political Activity	66	(25)
4. The Abolition Church Expanding the Ecclesiastical Abolitionist Network	91	(25)
5. A Political Millennium The Imminent Inauguration of God's Government	116	(21)
6. The Burned-Out District The Fragmenting of Ecclesiastical Abolitionism	137	(24)
Epilogue An Enduring Legacy	161	(12)
Appendixes	173	(14)
A. Identifying Ecclesiastical Abolitionism in the Towns of Upper New York	173	(8)
B. Occurrence of Antislavery Church Reform in Towns with 1844 Liberty Vote Totals over Thirty	181	(6)
Notes	187	(48)
Bibliography	235	(22)
Index	257