Major Problems in American Religious History

This text presents a carefully selected group of readings organized to allow students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions. Each chapter includes introductions, source notes, and suggested readings.

Table of Contents:
1. Approaches to American Religious History ESSAYS 1. Philip Schaff, Religious Vitality and Church-State Separation 2. H. Richard Niebuhr, America's Geographical Diversity Encourages Numerous Religious Denominations 3. Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, Church Membership Has Increased Throughout American History, Especially in the Most Demanding Groups 4. R. Laurence Moore, Religious Outsiders and "Civil Religion" 2. European-Indian Encounters DOCUMENTS 1. Bernal Diaz del Castillo Describes Cortes' Replacement of Human Sacrifice with the Cult of the Virgin Mary, c. 1519 2. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish Castaway, Becomes an Indian healer, 1542 3. Joseph Jouvency, a Jesuit Priest, Discusses Death and Hell with Canadian Indians, 1610 4. Roger Williams Explains Rhode Island Indians' Language and Religion, 1643 5. Mary Jemison Describes the Five Feasts by Which the Seneca Marked the Changing Seasons, c.1750 6. Tecaughretanego Explains Why the Great Spirit Sometimes Permits Men to Go Hungry Before Feeding Them, 1758 7. John Heckwelder Describes the Delaware Indians' View of Bear Spirits, c.1750 8. John Muir Witnesses the Conversion of Thlinkit Indians to Christianity, c.1876 ESSAYS 1. Catherine Albanese, American Indians' Nature Religion 2. James P. Ronda, Indians' Views of Christian Missionaries 3. Religious Life in the British Colonies: 1620-1700 DOCUMENTS 1. John Winthrop Outlines His Plan for a Godly Settlement, 1630 2. William Bradford Sees God's Mercy and Judgment in New England's Changing Fortunes, 1654 3. Why Harvard College Was Founded, 1643 4. Maryland's Act of Religious Toleration, 1649 5. Anne Bradstreet Commemorates Two Childrens' Deaths in Poems of 1669 6. William Penn Gives Scriptural Justifications for His Pennsylvania Frame of Government, 1681 7. Morgan Godwin Describes the Troubles of the Anglican Church in Virginia, 1684 8. Cotton Mather Advises John Richards on Detecting Witches, 1692 ESSAYS 1. Perry Miller, The Puritans' Errand into the Wilderness 2. Edward L. Bond, Anglicans in Virginia 4. Awakening and Revolution: 1730-1790 DOCUMENTS 1. Jonathan Edwards Describes the Great Awakening in Northmapton, Massachusetts, 1738 2. Nathan Cole, Connecticut Farmer, Hears the Preaching of George Whitefield and Is Born Again (1741), 1765 3. Phillis Wheatley's Elegy at George Whitefield's Death, 1770 4. Benjamin Franklin Explains His Religious Views in a Letter, 1756 5. John Witherspoon Preaches the Revolutionary War as God's Test to Sinners, 1776 6. Jonathan Boucher's Loyalist Sermon Denounces the Revolution, 1775 7. Anthony Benezet, Quaker, Denounces War, 1776 8. Isaac Jackson, Quaker, Protests Persecution, 1777 9. Thomas Jefferson Establishes Religious Freedom in Virginia, 1786 ESSAYS 1. Patricia U. Bonomi, The Great Awakening 2. Stephen Marini, How the Revolution Stimulated New Religious Movements 5. Religion in the Early Republic: 1790-1850 DOCUMENTS 1. Lucy Wight Meets Shaker Leader Mother Ann Lee, (c. 1780), 1826 2. Orestes Brownson Recalls His Quest for the Right Religion as a Young Man (c. 1820), 1857 3. Charles Grandison Finney Stirs Up Religious Emotions at Revival Meetings, 1835 4. Joseph Smith Explains How an Angel Guided Him to Found the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), 1842 5. Ralph Waldo Emerson Describes the "Over-Soul," 1841 6. Anonymous Ex-Slave Sees the Ghost of Her Dead Master c.1850 7. Henry Bibb, a Slave, Uses Conjuring to Prevent Harm and Attract Women, 1849 8. Samuel Ringgold Ward Escapes from Slavery and Becomes a Minister (1820), 1855 ESSAYS 1. Nathan O. Hatch, Christianity and Democratic Politics 2. Albert J. Raboteau, The Slaves' Own Religion 6. Antebellum Immigration and Social Tensions: 1830-1860 DOCUMENTS 1. Alexis de Tocqueville Sees Catholicism and Democracy as Compatible, 1835 2. Maria Monk Shocks Protestant Readers with Allegations of Sex and Violence in a Nunnuery, 1836 3. John Francis Maguire Recounts the Suffering of Irish Catholic Immigrants (1846), 1887 4. Benajmin Roth Warns His Emigr

About the Author :
Patrick Allitt is Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University, and an Americanist specializing in religious, intellectual, and environmental history. He graduated from Oxford, England in 1977 and earned his Ph.D. in American History in 1986 from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Divinity School (1985-1988) and has been at Emory since 1988. Author of six books, he is also the presenter of six lecture series with The Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com) on aspects of American and British history. His current research and writing project is a history of the intellectual and political opponents of environmentalism, from the 1960s to the early twenty-first century.