For most of the colonial period, Virginia's spiritual landscape
was thoroughly dominated by the Church of England, which enjoyed a
legal, and virtually unchallenged, monopoly of faith. Evangelical
Protestant dissenters dramatically remade Virginia's religious
terrain, however, when they rapidly coalesced into congregations in
the decades just before the American Revolution, and then
overwhelmed a weakened Anglican Church in the war's aftermath.
Virginians Reborn examines the intricate processes by which one of
these groups, the Baptists, was able to take root, expand, and
successfully compete for converts. By 1790, Virginia was the most
Baptist state in America, as well as the point of origin of a
massive early nineteenth-century western migration that helped
spread the faith across the country.
Based primarily on church records, ministers' writings, local
records, imperial correspondence, and newspaper accounts, this
study looks at the geographical patterns of Baptist expansion, the
techniques dissenters used to gain adherents, the distinctiveness
of Baptist worship, and its cultural resonances in Virginia. The
book traces how the American Revolution created a new context
favorable to Baptists and how the rise of this faith echoed and
reinforced the development of a distinctive, proslavery form of
republicanism. As Virginians embraced new political forms and
sought to reconcile them with slavery and household patriarchy, the
book argues, they could find instructive models in the particulars
of Baptist fellowship.
Ultimately, the book chronicles a dual process of rebirth, as
Virginians simultaneously formed a republic and became evangelical
Christians.
Winner of the Walker Cowen Memorial prize for an outstanding
work of scholarship in eighteenth-century studies
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!