Product Description
A reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American Republic, arguing that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. This book was co-winner of the 1990 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize…. More >>
The Democratization of American Christianity
Tags: actors, American, american christianity, Christianity, common people, Democratization, john hope franklin, reassessment, religion and culture, religious scene
#1 by T. Stevenson on April 20, 2010 - 12:56 am
This is an in-depth treatment of religious fads and movements of Christianity during the times of formation of this country. Hatch shows how the religious character of individualism, democratic populism, and just outright ignorance of tradition and church authority were viewed as the american way of determining what works in the American spirit. It should read for classical Protestants to show the damaging effects of SOLO scriptura in our churches. This book should lead one to Keith Mathison’s book The Shape of Sola Scriptura. Hatch could have went further, but i guess he wanted to spare us the anti-intellualism of popular americana.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by S. Simmons on April 20, 2010 - 3:49 am
I put a rush on this because I needed to read it for a class. I went with two-day shipping, but it arrived in under 24 hours. Fantastic!
The book itself was not quite as exciting. You can tell that this was originally a dissertation that was expanded into a book. The author just didn’t have that much to say on the subject, and by the third chapter or so, he’s kind of beating a dead horse. But he drives his point home, that’s for sure.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by Marc I. Langerman on April 20, 2010 - 5:29 am
Bought this for my friend Justin D. Vollmar. Justin mentioned to me that he was so excited to read the book!
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Ian McLeod on April 20, 2010 - 6:53 am
If you want to understand why the twenty-first century American Evengelical Church is rife with heretical teachings and outright apostasy, read this book. In The Democratization of American Christianity, Nathan Hatch demonstrates how the American Revolution spawned the so-called Second Great Awakening, a religious rebellion, which led to an abandonment of Orthodox Christianity in favor of a pluralism that plagues American Protestantism to this very day. The egalitarian values of the Enlightenment that dominated the American conscience of the early nineteenth century allowed a host of false teachers to lead a revolt of the laity against a clergy that, while Biblically Orthodox in their doctrine, had allowed affluance and intellectualism to overcome their sense of Christian charity. Spicing their sermons with coarse language, emotional appeals, Jeffersonian quotations, quaint stories and rabald humor, these populists taught that every individual must interpret the scriptures according to their own conscience. These “teachings” led to an “anything goes Christianity” that included the embracing of such heresies as Arminianism, Mormanism, Perfectionism and Universalism, the apostasy of Unitarianism and even Transcendentalism: anything other than Biblical Orthodoxy. One hundred and fifty years later, this pluralism continues to permeate American Protestanism, currently manifesting itself in the Emerging Church movement, which is a blending of Christianity with New Age spiriualism that denies the authority of scripture itself. Though Hatch does not set out to do so, he demonstrates the great truth that heresy always leads to apostasy.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Wiliam D. Walton on April 20, 2010 - 8:36 am
Thanks Mr. Hatch for writing this book!
How did the church in America get to its present position where it fails to realize that the body of Christ is dependent on God raising up distinctly graced individuals to authoritatively, accurately, and relevantly preach the Word? Read this book and find out.
Clearly demonstrates how the church which is supposed to be led by the Spirit of Christ, has instead been disasterously infected by the spirit of ’76 since the time of the revolution. God help us!
Rating: 5 / 5