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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > General
Because, it's said, history is written by the victors, we know
plenty about the Patriots' cause in the American Revolution. But
what about the perhaps one-third of the population who opposed
independence? They too were Americans who loved the land they lived
in, but their position is largely missing from our understanding of
Revolution-era American political thought. With God against the
Revolution, the first comprehensive account of the political
thought of the American Loyalists, Gregg L. Frazer seeks to close
this gap. Because the Loyalists' position was most clearly
expressed by clergymen, God against the Revolution investigates the
biblical, philosophical, and legal arguments articulated in
Loyalist ministers' writings, pamphlets, and sermons. The Loyalist
ministers Frazer consults were not blind apologists for Great
Britain; they criticized British excesses. But they challenged the
Patriots claiming rights as Englishmen to be subject to English
law. This is one of the many instances identified by Frazer in
which the Loyalist arguments mirrored or inverted those of the
Patriots, who demanded natural and English rights while denying
freedom of religion, expression, and assembly, and due process of
law to those with opposing views. Similarly the Loyalist ministers'
biblical arguments against revolution and in favor of subjection to
authority resonate oddly with still familiar notions of
Bible-invoking patriotism. For a revolution built on demands for
liberty, equality, and fairness of representation, God against
Revolution raises sobering questions-about whether the Patriots
were rational, legitimate representatives of the people, working in
the best interests of Americans. A critical amendment to the
history of American political thought, the book also serves as a
cautionary tale in the heated political atmosphere of our time.
A History of Ten Baptist Churches, first published in the 1820s by
author John Taylor, a pioneer Baptist farmer-preacher, has long
been recognized as an indispensible source for first-hand
information about the religious life of the early American
frontier. In his history Taylor recounted the experiences of
Baptists in Virginia who championed the cause of religious liberty.
He then chronicled the movement of many of those Baptists,
including himself, to the wilderness of central and northern
Kentucky where their church communities both struggled and
flourished. Taylor's vivid accounts are filled with colorful
descriptions of church life, including revivalistic experiences and
doctrinal debates; the challenges of being a minister, including
coping with meager resources and mediating disagreements; and the
problems of rural living, including the dilemma of slavery and
property disputes. Chester Raymond Young has overcome the
difficulties faced by the modern reader in deciphering the
anacronisms, obscurities, and idiosyncrasies of Taylor's narrative.
Young's edition, the first ever annotated one, features a logical
division of Taylor's sentences and paragraphs, a full bibliography
of relevant historical works, tables outlining frontier religious
rhetoric, and an extensive system of annotation that clarifies and
corrects Taylor's account.
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