The Democratization of American Christianity

One of the best historical works I've read is The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989). by Nathan Hatch. As a professor of history and vice president for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Notre Dame, Hatch clearly oc¬cupies an established niche in academia and writes as a professional historian. This book received the 1988 Albert C. Outler Prize in Ecumenical Church History from the American Society of Church History as well as the 1989 prize for best book in the history of the early republic from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. But it's more than a learned treatise for historians--it's a well-told, masterful tale, one which helps us grasp important aspects of this nation's religious experience. The title announces the book's thesis: Hatch "argues both that the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and that the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing that process" (p. 3). In that era revivalism, a "wave of popular religious movements," mainly inspired and di¬rected by Baptist and Methodist preachers, christi¬anized the fledgling nation by mid-century. Given the democratic tendencies sparked by the American Revolution--"the most crucial event in American history" (p. 5)--those religious movements which incorporated demo¬cratic ideology and polity most easily prospered. Between 1780 and 1830, uniquely American approaches established what we no label "evangelical" churches, and this emergence "of evangelical Christianity in the early republic is, in some measure, a story of the success of common people in shaping the culture after their own priorities rather than the priorities outlined by gentlemen such as the framers of the Constitution" (p. 9). Ordinary men and women, many of them marked by the rough practicality of the frontier, installed an Americanist version of the Christian faith in the new nation. They had little interest in European traditions, formal education, or theological subtleties. Thus they nurtured and followed "populist" preachers--largely self-educated leaders like the Methodist itinerant Lorenzo Dow who freely charted their own course. According to Dow, "larning isn't religion, and eddication don't give a man the power of the Spirit. It is the grace and gifts that furnish the real live coals from off the altar. St. Peter was a fisherman--do you think he ever went to Yale College?" (p. 20). Democratic forces tended to disestablish the learned professions, law and medicine as well as the ministry. In "back country" regions, dissent thrived and democratic impulses throbbed. "In the wake of the Revolution, dissenters con¬founded the establishment with an approach to theological matters that was nothing short of guerilla warfare. The coarse language, earthy humor, biting sarcasm, and commonsense reasoning of their attacks appealed to

The United States is unique among its peers due to the strong religiosity of its people in comparison to other Western industrial powers. "The Democratization of American Christianity" by Nathan O. Hatch, a highly influential scholar of American religious studies and current president of Wake Forest University, argues that this is due to the ongoing force of a populist strain of Protestant thought that first arose in the 1790s with the widespread demand that the Revolutionary rhetoric of freedom and democracy be fully realized in politics, society, and, inevitably, religion. The Second Great Awakening, which ran through the 1830s, was a time of millennial experimentation and renewal, as well as upheaval within the old Calvinist denominations. Impoverished Americans of the early nineteenth century have been nevertheless described as a "set of fierce republicans" fully aware of the Revolutionary promises of liberty and equality. The preachers of the Second Great Awakening frequently reminded their audiences of the humble origins of Christ and his early followers, as well as their oppression by the ruling classes - a theme that blended nicely with the fervent Jeffersonianism that characterized the early American republic. The post-Revolutionary era saw the rapid growth of newspapers, volunteer societies, the organization of political parties, new definitions of citizenship and the role of women, and virulent attacks on elite professions, especially the clergy. As forms of hierarchy in all areas of life began to collapse, radical Jeffersonians began to reclaim the Revolutionary rhetoric, which had once united colonists from all walks of life, to rouse the common folk against "aristocrats." Drawing on the anti-Federalists, they scorned the idea of society as an organic chain of command and argued that it was instead a veritable motley crew of competing interests. Dissent, in other words, came to be defined against accepted tradition, especially as the rush to settle the frontier removed many citizens from established centers of authority. Meanwhile, the deterioration of their economic prospects in the 1780s and '90s, despite promises of prosperity, only deepened the rural poor's resentment and sense of social alienation. Within this milieu the "coarse language, earthy humor, biting sarcasm, and commonsense reasoning" of backcountry preachers held enormous appeal and left educated ministers at a loss. Instead of respecting "tradition, learning, solemnity and decorum," upstarts such as John Leland, Alexander Campbell, Lorenzo Dow, and Francis Asbury exalted the individual conscience. For all their differences, however, each of the upstart leaders and sects arising out of the Second Great Awakening stressed the simple motifs of sin, grace, and conversion. They embraced spontaneous experience and dismissed any religion that struck them as cold, detached, and intellectual. Unlike their predecessors of in the eighteenth century, they quite self-conscious

Nathan O. Hatch uses the second sentence of The Democratization of American Christianity to inform the reader that the book argues "both that the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and that the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing that process" (3). To this end, Hatch focuses on the diffusion of the Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, Disciples of Christ, and African-American Christians across post-revolutionary America as a challenge to more established denominations, like the New England Congregationalists and Virginia Anglicans, and political elites. The brilliance of Hatch's argument lies in its illustration of a confluence of Protestant growth with the expansion of democratic thought and application in the country. The book's most central contribution to the study of American Christianity is the concept of "religious populism" in the early republic, which at once speaks to the American Christianity's innovative ability to reach out to various populations, and to the loyalty to American religion that such outreach efforts endeared among its adherents. In some sense, a demand for less-elitist, more-egalitarian forms of worship and congregational life existed, and the predominantly unlettered, zealous, "bold intruders" (aka ministers) of faith adapted preach styles and techniques to meet that demand. The book begins to fill a gap in our understanding of religious life in 1780s and 1790s America. In the historiographical section--a must-read for any scholar--"Redefining the Second Great Awakening: A Note on the Study of Christianity in the Early Republic," Hatch confronts the question of difficulties surrounding the religious history of the early national period. "There are more generalizations and less solid data on the dynamics of American religion in this period than in any other in our history" (p. 220). Though he cannot single-handedly erase this deficiency, Hatch, for his part, has crafted a needed work that illumines the power of popular religious movements through the actions and travels of their dynamic leaders. The stars of The Democratization of American Christianity are Lorenzo Dow, Alexander Campbell, Richard Allen, Francis Asbury, Joseph Smith, John Leland, and other religious leaders. Hatch builds his case for a popularizing religion on the backs of deft religious leadership and their success at movement-building. Although these Christian "insurgents" held differing beliefs and employed various techniques, these men excelled at popular written and verbal communication, triggered a revolt against Christian tradition, and inaugurated a new era of religious life in America. Hatch's portrayal of early America's religious leaders presents them as revolutionaries, not wholly unlike the colonials in Philadelphia who laid an ideological foundation for the Revolution. Christian adherents and secular historians alike will benefit from this exc

This well researched and written book is worthy of the honors it has received. This book was suggested to us by our Pastor because of our prevailing struggle with a democratic view of the Church. Even though we are laypersons and not in the academic world, we found this work helpful in pointing to the root of our faulty thinking.

I always like a book in which the author sets out his or her thesis clearly. In this case, such a statement comes in the first two sentences of Chapter 1!"This book is about the cultural and religious history of the early American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity. It argues both that the theme of democratization is central to the understanding the development of American Christianity and that the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing the that process." (p. 3)But the clear thesis statement is not the only reason why I enjoyed reading "The Democratization of American Christianity." In presenting his argument, Hatch tells a highly entertaining story about a fascinating time in the history of the American Protestantism. It was a time filled with such colorful characters as Barton Stone, Francis Asbury, Lorenzo Dow, and Charles Grandison Finney. It was a time during which developed such famous -- or perhaps infamous -- American Church institutions as the circuit rider, the camp meeting, and "the anxious bench." And, most importantly -- as Professor Hatch points out -- it was the time during which the spirit of independence and democratic idealism that had propelled the Americans successfully through the Revolutionary War seeped into the American churches, giving shape to the distinctive form of Christianity in present-day America.In this 312-page book, Hatch examines five separate religious traditions, or "mass movements," as he terms them, that played upon the American stage during the early 19th Century: the Christian movement, the Methodists, the Baptists, the black churches, and the Mormons. Despite the wide-ranging theological opinions represented among these distinct bodies, "they all offered common people, especially the poor, compelling visions of individual self-respect and collective self-confidence." (p. 4) Moreover, these movements "took shape around magnetic leaders who were highly skilled in communication and group mobility." (p. 4) Hatch studies these men and others who rose to distinction on the American religious scene from the 1780s to the 1830s. He finds that "the fundamental religious debates in the early republic were not merely a clash of intellectual and theological differences but also a passionate social struggle with power and authority." (p. 14) Hence, the story of American religion within this time frame mirrors the story of American politics; both tell "how ordinary folk came to distrust leaders of genius and talent and to defend the right of common people to shape their own faith and submit to leaders of their own choosing." (Ibid.)Such a profound change within the religious realm implies a fundamental shift in theology. Indeed, the rise of popular religious leaders unschooled in theology did result in theological competition, with the popular theology eventually winning out. This is due, in large measure, to the tra