Evangelical Christianity Chapter by Mark Noll, “The Churches Become American, 1730-1830”, from Old Religion, New World “major shift in the character of Christianity… during the 18th century. The new element is usually identified as “pietism” on the continent or “evangelicalism” for Britian and North America.” – Noll, p. 51

Reformation A few key features: Identity based on difference Confessions, catechism, professions of faith – propositional, rationalized faith Established state churches Heading towards bourgeois, middle class phenomenon

Reformation – Social-Political Legacy 1617 Jubilee 17th c. Satire

“a man may assent to three or three and twenty creeds… and yet have no Christian faith at all…” – John Wesley Pietist Critique - true religion does not consist in orthodoxy or right opinions/beliefs but deeper, in the heart Philip Jacob Spener – Introduction to Johann Arndt’s True Christianity (1675)

John Wesley (1703-1791) Sanctification – Perfection Social action George Whitfield (1714-1770) Transform Reformation into modern Protestant Evangelism

Revivalism First Great Awakening, 1730s-1770s Gilbert Tennent George Whitfield Jonathan Edwards Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists Rejection Anglicans, Quakers, gains Dissension; splits

Lorenzo Dow (d. 1834) – Methodist; “jerking”

Baptists

New York City skyline with 18 churches 1771 woodblock Religious Tolerance; “Denominationalism” 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – Jefferson: “ a wall of separation between church and state.”

Appeal? Contexts? What could account for the tremendous appeal of evangelical Christianity to men and women on both sides of the Atlantic in the later half of the 19th c.?