Part One: Religion -- 1. The Challenge to Orthodoxy -- 2. Theology at New Haven -- 3. Theology at Princeton and Oberlin -- 4. The Antebellum Congregational and Presbyterian Communities -- 5. The Role of Religion in the Republic -- Part Two: Reform -- 6. The Catholic Church and the Whore of Babylon -- 7. The Temperance Crusade -- 8. Chattel Slavery -- 9. Benevolence, the Social Order, and the Kingdom of God -- 10. The Closing Years of Antebellum Reform -- In Retrospect -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary
In an exciting reinterpretation of the early nineteenth century, Leo Hirrel demonstrates the importance of religious ideas by exploring the relationship between religion and reform efforts during a crucial period in American history. The result is a work that moves the history of antebellum reform to a higher level of sophistication. Hirrel focuses upon New School Congregationalists and Presbyterians who served at the forefront of reform efforts and provided critical leadership to anti-Catholic, temperance, antislavery, and missionary movements. Their religion was an attempt to reconcile tradit