Throughout its history, the rhetoric of religion, specifically, in this case of Protestant Christianity, has shaped and influenced America. From missions societies to itinerant preachers, Protestants leaders have sought to spread the gospel throughout the nation, including to racially and ethnically diverse citizens. While George Whitefield travelled through the colonies in the mid18th-century preaching to all he met, black and white, slaves and free, a hundred years later, the women of the Protestant Home Missions Movement echoed his thundering prose, seeking to convert and Americanize incoming Catholic immigrants. Though much had changed between these two eras, including not insignificantly, the American Revolution, the Civil War and a nascent U.S. nationalism, some elements remain the same. While Whitefield emerges as a truly Atlantic figure, floating in a world loosely bound by goods and labor markets, the 20th-century American women are deeply attached to the notion of nation, and, in fact, often conflate Protestantism and true Americanism. But the message of grace in Christ does not change, from Whitefields thunderous sermons to womens illustrated home monthlies. Also consistently present is an underlying tension within these Protestant missionsthat of exclusion and even racism on one hand and love and equality before God on the other. Using the rhetoric and activity of Protestant missions as a barometer, a fascinating portrait of religion in America emerges, one that is ever shifting and ever the same.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03312010-150744 |
| Date | 20 April 2010 |
| Creators | Quiros, Ansley Lillian |
| Contributors | Gary Gerstle |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03312010-150744/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds