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The Voluntary Church: American Religious Life, 1740-1860, Seen Through the Eyes of European Visitors

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"~Nearly two centuries ago there occurred a phenomenon unique in the history of the Western church the voluntary church of America. European visitors to America in the eighteenth and nineteenth century were deeply interested in this radical solution to the problem of religious diversity that had plagued Europe for so long a solution based upon religious freedom, voluntary support of religious institutions, separation of church and state, and, implicitly, an affirmation of religious pluralism. There were hundreds of travel accounts in which the new American church received lengthy comment. These European visitors had an insight that no native American could achieve. The writers, from whose works the selections for this book were made, vary widely in background and view? point. Some, such as Trollope, Tocqueville, Crevecoeur, Levasseur, and Harriet Martineau, are well known. Others will be unfamiliar to some readers. Among these, in the eighteenth century, are: George Whitefield, a leader of the ""Calvinist wing"" of the Methodist Church in England; Alexander Hamilton, a Scottish physician who settled in Maryland in 1739; Peter Kalm, a Swedish botanist and author of Travels in North America. America. Among the nineteenth-century commentators are Andrew Reed, sent to America as a delegate to the Congregational Church in 1834; George Combe, a phrenologist; Philip Schaff, a German theologian and intellectual. Within the diversity of the accounts, a number of questions recur: on the piety of Americans, their morality, their styles of preaching, the position of the clergy in political life, and many others, still being explored today. In general, this remarkable collection of observations and judgments adds much to our understanding of religion in America in the present as well as in the past. In addition to, its significance in the field of religion, the book is delightful reading, and contributes a valuable firsthand picture, focused through European eyes, of our country in its formative years. ~"

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Publisher

New York, New York : MacMillan Company., 1967

Collation

Hardcover, 197 hlm, 15x22cm

Language

Indonesia

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NONE

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Subject(s)

Christianity
History

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