In this study of the Great Awakening in Virginia, the author endeavors to show the far-reaching effects of the series of evangelical revivals which swept the colony in wave after wave during the thirty or forty years preceding the American Revolution, and then again after the war. He believes that he has proven that the rise of the popular churches, which resulted from the Great Awakening, contributed very definitely, not only to the religious life of Virginia, but also to the rise of political democracy, and to the social revolution which had transformed the Old Dominion by the end of the eighteenth century. Furthermore, he shows that the Great Awakening set in motion certain humanitarian and educational forces which left their permanent impress upon the life of Virginia. -- Preface.

The First Great Awakening, an unprecedented surge in Protestant Christian revivalism in the Eighteenth Century, sparked enormous of controversy at the time and has been a source of scholarly debate ever since. Few historians have sought to write a synthetic history of the First Great Awakening, and in recent decades it has been challenged as having happened at all, being either an exaggeration or an “invention.” The First Great Awakening expands the movement’s geographical, theological, and sociopolitical scope. Rather than focus exclusively on the clerical elites, as earlier studies have done, it deals with them alongside ordinary people, and includes the experiences of women, African Americans, and Indians as the observers and participants they were. It challenges prevailing scholarly opinion concerning what the revivals were and what they meant to the formation of American religious identity and culture. Cover image: NPG 131, George Whitefield by John Wollaston, oil on canvas, circa 1742. © National Portrait Gallery, London

A Controversial Spirit offers a new perspective on the origins and nature of southern evangelicalism. Most recent historians have focused on the differences between evangelicals and non-evangelicals. This has led to the perception that during the "Era of Awakenings" (mid-18th and early 19th century) American evangelicals constituted a united front. Philip N. Mulder dispels this illusion, by examining the internal dynamics of evangelicalism. He focuses on the relationships among the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists who introduced the new religious mood to the South between 1740 and 1820. Although the denominations shared the goal of saving souls, he finds, they disagreed over the correct definition of true religion and conversion. The Presbyterians and Baptists subordinated the freedom, innovation and experience of the awakenings to their particular denominational concerns. The Methodists, on the other hand, were more aggressive and innovative advocates of the New Light awakenings. They broke through the insularity of the other two groups and revolutionized the religious culture of the emerging nation. The American Revolution exacerbated the growing competition and jealousy among the denominations by displacing their common enemy, the established Anglican church. Former dissenters now turned to face each other. Free religious competition was transformative, Mulder argues. The necessity of competing for converts forced the Presbyterians and Baptists out of their narrow confines. More importantly, however, competition compromised the Methodists and their New Light ideals. Methodists had presented themselves as an ecumenical alternative to the rigid and rancorous denominations of England and America. Now they turned away from their open message of salvation, and began using their distinctive characteristics to separate themselves from other denominations. The Methodists thus succumbed to the evangelical pattern set by others - a pattern of distinction, insularity, and divisive competition. Examining conversion narratives, worship, polity, and rituals, as well as more formal doctrinal statements in creeds and sermons, Mulder is able to provide a far more nuanced portrait of southern evangelicals than previously available, revealing the deep differences between denominations that the homogenization of religious history has until now obscured.

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Rhys Isaac describes and analyzes the dramatic confrontations--primarily religious and political--that transformed Virginia in the second half of the eighteenth century. Making use of the observational techniques of the cultural anthropologist, Isaac vividly recreates and painstakingly dissects a society in the turmoil of profound inner change.

The publication of the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South in 1984 signaled the rise in the scholarly interest in the study of Religion in the South. Religion has always been part of the cultural heritage of that region, but scholarly investigation had been sporadic. Since the original publication of the ERS, however, the South has changed significantly in that Christianity is no longer the primary religion observed. Other religions like Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism have begun to have very important voices in Southern life. This one-volume reference, the only one of its kind, takes this expansion into consideration by updating older relevant articles and by adding new ones. After more than 20 years, the only reference book in the field of the Religion in the South has been totally revised and updated. Each article has been updated and bibliography has been expanded. The ERS has also been expanded to include more than sixty new articles on Religion in the South. New articles have been added on such topics as Elvis Presley, Appalachian Music, Buddhism, Bill Clinton, Jerry Falwell, Fannie Lou Hamer, Zora Neale Hurston, Stonewall Jackson, Popular Religion, Pat Robertson, the PTL, Sports and Religion in the South, theme parks, and much more. This is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the South, religion, or cultural history.

Introduction -- Reporting the awakening -- Regional paper wars -- Whitefield, Tennent, and Davenport : newsmakers of the awakening -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1 : methodology -- Appendix 2 : table of individual newspaper reporting on the revival.

Unsurpassed as a single-volume history, John E. Selby's masterpiece analyzes the political, administrative, and military history of Virginia during the American Revolution. Stressing the contributions, in both men and material, that the state made to the new nation's war effort, Shelby shows how Virginia's leaders responded to the need to expand the state's administration and mobilize its people for war while at the same time looking westward to the vast territory beyond the Appalachians. Now available for the first time in paperback and with a new foreword by the historian Don Higginbotham, this classic is a must-read for anyone interested in the origins of our nation.