Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790-1860

by Johnson, Curtis D.

• ISBN13: 9780801478437
• ISBN10: 080147843X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-12-11
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Through an examination of religious life in a typical northern rural locale-Cortland County, New York-from 1790 to 1860, Curtis D. Johnson adds to our understanding of the Second Great Awakening, an intellectual and religious watershed in American history. Offering both quantitative and qualitative analyses of churches' memberships, ideologies, and activities, he maintains that scholars have misunderstood the historical significance of evangelicalism. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Curtis D. Johnson is Chair and Associate Professor of History at Mount St. Mary's University. He is the author of Redeeming America: Evangelicals and the Road to Civil War.

Table of Contents

Maps and Chart	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xiv
Introduction	p. 1
Frontier Churches, 1790-1815
Adapting to the New York Frontier	p. 13
The Development of an Island Mentality	p. 22
Growing Churches, 1812-1843
The Triumph of Arminianism	p. 33
Women: Agents of the Gospel Message	p. 53
Denomination, Institutional Circumstance, and Rural Revivalism	p. 67
The Failure of Economic Explanations of Rural Revivalism	p. 77
Divided Churches, 1826-1846
Discipline and the Island Mentality	p. 89
Competition Disrupts the Evangelical Order	p. 94
Individualism and the Embattled Corporate Church	p. 103
The Ultraist Revolt	p. 113
"Modern" Churches, 1846-1860
Evangelical Churches Search for Unity	p. 137
The Decline of the Island Mentality	p. 145
Cortland County Churches as "Modern" Churches	p. 159
Conclusion	p. 165
Appendixes
Methodological Notes	p. 179
Evangelicalism in Cortland County	p. 182
Church Discipline	p. 188
Religious Voluntarism	p. 192
Bibliography	p. 197
Index	p. 209
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