| Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South, 1785-1900 Contributor(s): Wills, Gregory A. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0195104129 ISBN-13: 9780195104127 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $72.20 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: December 1996 Annotation: Democracy has not always fostered anti-authoritarian individualism. No American denomination identified itself more closely with the nation's democratic ideal than the Baptists. Most antebellum southern Baptist churches allowed women and slaves to vote on membership matters and preferred populist preachers who addressed their appeals to the common person. Paradoxically, no denomination wielded religious authority as zealously as the Baptists. Between 1785 and 1860 they ritually (and democratically) excommunicated forty to fifty thousand church members in Georgia alone. Wills demonstrates how a denomination of freedom-loving individualists came to embrace an exclusivist spirituality - a spirituality that continues to shape Southern Baptist churches in contemporary conflicts between moderates who urge tolerance and conservatives who require belief in scriptural inerrancy. Wills's analysis advances our understanding of the interaction between democracy and religious authority, and will appeal to scholars of American religion, culture, and history, as well as to Baptist observers. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Christianity - Baptist - Religion | Christianity - History - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 286.175 |
| LCCN: 96020575 |
| Lexile Measure: 1400 |
| Physical Information: 0.77" H x 6.34" W x 9.38" (1.08 lbs) 208 pages |
| Themes: - Theometrics - Academic - Chronological Period - 18th Century - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Cultural Region - South - Religious Orientation - Christian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: No American denomination identified itself more closely with the nation's democratic ideal than the Baptists. Most antebellum southern Baptist churches allowed women and slaves to vote on membership matters and preferred populists preachers who addressed their appeals to the common person. Paradoxically no denomination could wield religious authority as zealously as the Baptists. Between 1785 and 1860 they ritually excommunicated forty to fifty thousand church members in Georgia alone. Wills demonstrates how a denomination of freedom-loving individualists came to embrace an exclusivist spirituality--a spirituality that continues to shape Southern Baptist churches in contemporary conflicts between moderates who urge tolerance and conservatives who require belief in scriptural inerrancy. Wills's analysis advances our understanding of the interaction between democracy and religious authority, and will appeal to scholars of American religion, culture, and history, as well as to Baptist observers. |