It began as a trickle in 1792, but by century's end northwestern Connecticut was awash in revival. In 1799 Edward Dorr Griffin wrote that he could stand at his doorstep in Litchfield County and "number fifty or sixty congregations laid down in one field of divine wonders." Griffin was one of the leading ministers whose electrifying preaching triggered the Second Great Awakening--the subject of this award-winning study. A Field of Divine Wonders focuses on the village revivals sparked by Griffin and his fellow New Divinity ministers--the theological heirs of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards died in 1758--long before the rash of revivals in 1798--but he left an enduring legacy that later generations of disciples followed. But it was the third generation of Edwardseans, pastors such as Griffin, Asahel Nettleton, and Bennet Tyler, who personified the theology of revival. For thirty years, they successfully preached, counseled, and defended the New Divinity message of salvation until the mid-1820s when most of the leaders had passed from the scene and New Divinity revivalism had lost its appeal. Nevertheless, there remained a form of piety rooted in Edwards's teaching on "affectionate" religion, which merged with other evangelical traditions and has endured up to our own day. Unlike previous studies focused chiefly on leaders or institutions, or theology or converts, A Field of Divine Wonders integrates the history of ideas with newer approaches in historical research--collective biography, modes of discourse, gender studies, social and quantitative history, and local community studies--to supply the kind of "new religious history" that historians have long called for.

This book examines the debate over the connection between religion and public life in society during the fifty years following the American Revolution. Sassi challenges the conventional wisdom, finding an essential continuity to the period's public Christianity, whereas most previous studies have seen this period as one in which the nation's cultural paradigm shifted from republicanism to liberal individualism. Focusing on the Congregational clergy of New England, he demonstrates that throughout this period there were Americans concerned with their corporate destiny, retaining a commitment to constructing a righteous community and assessing the cosmic meaning of the American experiment.

John Wolffe provides an authoritative account of evangelicalism from the 1790s to the 1840s, making extensive use of primary sources. A compelling book, rich in detail, that will excite history buffs, students and professors, and any reader interested in the development of evangelicalism.

Among his many accomplishments, Jonathan Edwards was an effective mentor who trained many leaders for the church in colonial America, but his pastoral work is often overlooked. Rhys S. Bezzant investigates the background, method, theological rationale, and legacy of his mentoring ministry. Edwards did what mentors normally do--he met with individuals to discuss ideas and grow in skills. But Bezzant shows that Edwards undertook these activities in a distinctly modern or affective key. His correspondence is written in an informal style; his understanding of friendship and conversation takes up the conventions of the great metropolitan cities of Europe. His pedagogical commitments are surprisingly progressive and his aspirations for those he mentored are bold and subversive. When he explains his mentoring practice theologically, he expounds the theme of seeing God face to face, summarized in the concept of the beatific vision, which recognizes that human beings learn through the example of friends as well as through the exposition of propositions. In this book the practice of mentoring is presented as an exchange between authority and agency, in which the more experienced person empowers the other, whose own character and competencies are thus nurtured. More broadly, the book is a case study in cultural engagement, for Edwards deliberately takes up certain features of the modern world in his mentoring and yet resists other pressures that the Enlightenment generated. If his world witnessed the philosophical evacuation of God from the created order, then Edwards's mentoring is designed to draw God back into an intimate connection with human experience.

A study of the early Christian church in the Mediterranean region and its emphasis on collective good over individual desire clarifies much about what is wrong with the American church today.

Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age thirty-eight. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, moves beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud to explore his personality, his relationships with others, and how he received revelations. An arresting narrative of the birth of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling also brilliantly evaluates the prophet’s bold contributions to Christian theology and his cultural place in the modern world.

Our nation began with the simple phrase, “We the People.” But who were and are “We”? Who were we in 1776, in 1865, or 1968, and is there any continuity in character between the we of those years and the nearly 300 million people living in the radically different America of today? With Made in America, Claude S. Fischer draws on decades of historical, psychological, and social research to answer that question by tracking the evolution of American character and culture over three centuries. He explodes myths—such as that contemporary Americans are more mobile and less religious than their ancestors, or that they are more focused on money and consumption—and reveals instead how greater security and wealth have only reinforced the independence, egalitarianism, and commitment to community that characterized our people from the earliest years. Skillfully drawing on personal stories of representative Americans, Fischer shows that affluence and social progress have allowed more people to participate fully in cultural and political life, thus broadening the category of “American” —yet at the same time what it means to be an American has retained surprising continuity with much earlier notions of American character. Firmly in the vein of such classics as The Lonely Crowd and Habits of the Heart—yet challenging many of their conclusions—Made in America takes readers beyond the simplicity of headlines and the actions of elites to show us the lives, aspirations, and emotions of ordinary Americans, from the settling of the colonies to the settling of the suburbs.