This thesis examines the history of antebellum West Point, tracing connections between the religious atmosphere of the Academy and the political ideology which it inculcated into cadets. A central claim of this essay is that the Revival of 1826 cemented a distinctly religious rhetoric as the operating ideology of West Point. This ideology held that the defense and maintenance of the sovereignty of the United States was to be cadets' primary objective. Cadets were taught that defending American sovereignty constituted a divine mandate incumbent upon them as students of West Point. Finally, a key goal of this essay has been to ground "civil religion" in sources particular to this essay in the hope of reworking the concept for broader use in American religious history. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2011. / August 31, 2011. / Charles P. McIlvaine, Civil Religion, Civil War, Revival, Sylvanus Thayer, West Point / Includes bibliographical references. / Amanda Porterfield, Professor Directing Thesis; John Corrigan, Committee Member; Amy Koehlinger, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182889 |
| Contributors | Graziano, Michael (authoraut), Porterfield, Amanda (professor directing thesis), Corrigan, John (committee member), Koehlinger, Amy (committee member), Department of Religion (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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