Download or read book The Diary of Isaac Backus 1765 1785 written by Isaac Backus and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "American historians have long realized that the Baptist minister Isaac Backus (1724-1806) played a signal role in the separation of church and state in New England, but his diary, here published for the first time, makes clear as well his importance as a leader and spokesman of the small dissenting sect that would become after 1800 the largest Protestant denomination in the nation. The diary, covering the sixty-year span from the First to the Second Great Awakening, describes the campaigns he and his colleagues waged for religious liberty and for the propagation of their religious principles." (p. xv) Isaac was a direct descendant in the fifth generation of English immigrant William Backus Sr., who settled in Saybrook, Connecticut in 1637. Issac died before New England abandoned religious taxation (Connecticut in 1818, Massachusetts in 1833), but before his death he was certain New England would eventually switch to Thomas Jefferson's position of separation of church and state.

Download or read book The Diary of Isaac Backus written by Isaac Backus and published by . This book was released on 1780 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Diary of Isaac Backus 1786 1806 written by Isaac Backus and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "American historians have long realized that the Baptist minister Isaac Backus (1724-1806) played a signal role in the separation of church and state in New England, but his diary, here published for the first time, makes clear as well his importance as a leader and spokesman of the small dissenting sect that would become after 1800 the largest Protestant denomination in the nation. The diary, covering the sixty-year span from the First to the Second Great Awakening, describes the campaigns he and his colleagues waged for religious liberty and for the propagation of their religious principles." (p. xv) Isaac was a direct descendant in the fifth generation of English immigrant William Backus Sr., who settled in Saybrook, Connecticut in 1637. Issac died before New England abandoned religious taxation (Connecticut in 1818, Massachusetts in 1833), but before his death he was certain New England would eventually switch to Thomas Jefferson's position of separation of church and state.

Download or read book The Diary of Isaac Backus written by Isaac Backus and published by . This book was released on 1979-01-01 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Significance of the Printed Word in Early America written by Julie K. Williams and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1999-04-30 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American press played a significant role in the transference of European civilization to America and in the shaping of American society. Settlement entrepreneurs used the press to persuade Europeans to come to America. Immigrants brought religious tracts with them to spread Puritanism and other doctrines to Native Americans and the white population. The colonists used the press to openly debate issues, print advertisements for business, and as a source of entertainment. But what did the colonists actually think about the press? The author has gathered information from primary sources to explore this question. Diaries and journals reveal how the colonists valued local news, often preferring American news to European news. This concentrated focus upon colonial attitudes and thoughts toward the press covers the period of colonial settlement from the 1500s through 1765. This book will appeal to scholars and students of American history and communication history. Primary documents expressing the colonists' thoughts will also be of interest to scholars and students of American thought, American philosophy, and early American literature and writing.

Download or read book Faith and the Founders of the American Republic written by Daniel L. Dreisbach and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of religion in the founding of America has long been a hotly debated question. Some historians have regarded the views of a few famous founders, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Thomas Paine, as evidence that the founders were deists who advocated the strict separation of church and state. Popular Christian polemicists, on the other hand, have attempted to show that virtually all of the founders were pious Christians in favor of public support for religion. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, a diverse array of religious traditions informed the political culture of the American founding. Faith and the Founders of the American Republic includes studies both of minority faiths, such as Islam and Judaism, and of major traditions like Calvinism. It also includes nuanced analysis of specific founders-Quaker fellow-traveler John Dickinson, prominent Baptists Isaac Backus and John Leland, and Theistic Rationalist Gouverneur Morris, among others-with attention to their personal histories, faiths, constitutional philosophies, and views on the relationship between religion and the state. This volume will be a crucial resource for anyone interested in the place of faith in the founding of the American constitutional republic, from political, religious, historical, and legal perspectives.

Download or read book The Awakening of the Freewill Baptists written by Scott Bryant and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last decades of the eighteenth century brought numerous changes to the citizens of colonial New England. As the colonists were joining together in their fight for independence from England, a collection of like-minded believers in southern New Hampshire forged an identity as a new religious tradition. Benjamin Randall (1749ndash;1808) was one of the principle founders of the Freewill Baptist movement in colonial New England. Randall was one of the many eighteenth-century colonists that enjoyed a conversion experience as a result of the revival ministry of George Whitefield. His newfound spiritual zeal prompted him to examine the scriptures on his own, and he began to question the practice of infant baptism. Randall completed his separation from the Congregational church of his youth when he contacted a Baptist congregation and submitted himself for baptism. When Randall was introduced to the Baptists in New England, he was made aware that his theology, including God's universal love and universal grace, was at odds with Calvin's doctrine of election that was affirmed by the other Baptists. Randall's spiritual journey continued as he began to preach revival services throughout the region. His ministry was well received and he established a new congregation in New Durham, New Hampshire, in 1780. The congregation in New Durham served as Randall's base of operation as he led revival services throughout New Hampshire and Southern Maine. Randall's travels introduced him to many colonists who accepted his message of universal love and universal grace and a movement was born as Randall formed many congregations throughout the region. Randall spent the remainder of his life organizing, guiding, and leading the Freewill Baptists as they developed into a religious tradition that included thousands of adherents spread throughout New England and into Canada.

Download or read book Endowed by Our Creator written by Michael Meyerson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aims to provide an unbiased look at the Founding Fathers' concept of freedom of religion.

Download or read book To Contest with All the Powers of Darkness written by Jacob E. Hicks and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2024-07-12 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new history of the New England Baptists, Jacob E. Hicks teases out the social and political contexts that transformed “rustic” young men like John Leland not only into volunteers for Christ—as wide-roving preachers in the mold of George Whitefield—but also into influential opinion leaders, media entrepreneurs, networkers, and lobbyists in the contentious First Party era of the Early Republic. Baptist leaders like Isaac Backus, Noah Alden, Samuel Stillman, John Leland, Jonathan Going, and Luther Rice exploited their church-based ministerial training in public speaking, conflict resolution, and intra-denominational networking to become political organizers. With significant gains in the formation of the Warren Association (1767), the Backus-led Grievance Committee (1769), and Leland’s formative experience in the campaign to disestablish Virginia (1780s), the Baptists allied themselves with the rising Democratic-Republican Party, touching off a coalition of anti-Federalist politics and evangelical religion that, while not directly disestablishing Massachusetts, would bear significant fruit in the Religious Freedom Act of 1811. To Contest with All the Powers of Darkness brings a unique movement into focus that had at its inception the communal values and ministry preparation practices of a loose network of New England Baptist churches. This movement drove a significant first wedge in the church-state fusion of the Early Republic and, simultaneously, left memorable lessons in successful collective action for a New England Baptist community on the verge of an institutional explosion on the western frontier.

Download or read book Strangers and Pilgrims written by Catherine A. Brekus and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Margaret Meuse Clay, who barely escaped a public whipping in the 1760s for preaching without a license; "Old Elizabeth," an ex-slave who courageously traveled to the South to preach against slavery in the early nineteenth century; Harriet Livermore, who spoke in front of Congress four times between 1827 and 1844--these are just a few of the extraordinary women profiled in this, the first comprehensive history of female preaching in early America. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Catherine Brekus examines the lives of more than a hundred female preachers--both white and African American--who crisscrossed the country between 1740 and 1845. Outspoken, visionary, and sometimes contentious, these women stepped into the pulpit long before twentieth-century battles over female ordination began. They were charismatic, popular preachers, who spoke to hundreds and even thousands of people at camp and revival meetings, and yet with but a few notable exceptions--such as Sojourner Truth--these women have essentially vanished from our history. Recovering their stories, Brekus shows, forces us to rethink many of our common assumptions about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American culture.

Download or read book Demanding Liberty written by Brandon J. O'Brien and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historian Brandon O'Brien unveils an untold story of religious liberty in America. Between theocracy and secularism, Baptist pastor Isaac Backus contended for a third way—religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all Americans, regardless of belief. Backus's ideas impacted his era, giving us insight into how people of faith today can navigate political debates and work for the common good.

Download or read book Disorderly Women written by Susan Juster and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout most of the eighteenth century and particularly during the religious revivals of the Great Awakening, evangelical women in colonial New England participated vigorously in major church decisions, from electing pastors to disciplining backsliding members. After the Revolutionary War, however, women were excluded from political life, not only in their churches but in the new republic as well. Reconstructing the history of this change, Susan Juster shows how a common view of masculinity and femininity shaped both radical religion and revolutionary politics in America. Juster compares contemporary accounts of Baptist women and men who voice their conversion experiences, theological opinions, and proccupation with personal conflicts and pastoral controversies. At times, the ardent revivalist message of spiritual individualism appeared to sanction sexual anarchy. According to one contemporary, revival attempted "to make all things common, wives as well as goods." The place of women at the center of evangelical life in the mid-eighteenth century, Juster finds, reflected the extent to which evangelical religion itself was perceived as "feminine"—emotional, sensional, and ultimately marginal. In the 1760s, the Baptist order began to refashion its mission, and what had once been a community of saints—often indifferent to conventional moral or legal constraints—was transformed into a society of churchgoers with a concern for legitimacy. As the church was reconceptualized as a "household" ruled by "father" figures, "feminine" qualities came to define the very essence of sin. Juster observes that an image of benevolent patriarchy threatened by the specter of female power was a central motif of the wider political culture during the age of democratic revolutions.

Download or read book Dictionary of Early American Philosophers written by John R. Shook and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-04-05 with total page 1252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dictionary of Early American Philosophers, which contains over 400 entries by nearly 300 authors, provides an account of philosophical thought in the United States and Canada between 1600 and 1860. The label of "philosopher" has been broadly applied in this Dictionary to intellectuals who have made philosophical contributions regardless of academic career or professional title. Most figures were not academic philosophers, as few such positions existed then, but they did work on philosophical issues and explored philosophical questions involved in such fields as pedagogy, rhetoric, the arts, history, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, medicine, anthropology, religion, metaphysics, and the natural sciences. Each entry begins with biographical and career information, and continues with a discussion of the subject's writings, teaching, and thought. A cross-referencing system refers the reader to other entries. The concluding bibliography lists significant publications by the subject, posthumous editions and collected works, and further reading about the subject.

Download or read book Rebels and Renegades written by Neil A. Hamilton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-10-11 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rebels and Renegades examines 350 years of history through the eyes of the uncompromising. Presented in nine clearly written chronological chapters, this comprehensive reference covers the major events and personalities in the history of extremism in the U.S. Besides chronicling the event itself, entries, ranging from 500 to 1000 words, include background information and historic effects. In addition to the chronology, sidebars highlight historical, biographical, cultural, and ethical aspects of the story, tying the past to the present. Topics include the influence of radical idea on the mainstream, the role of violence in radicalism, and the evolving relationship between radicals and the media. An extensive appendix of excerpts, transcripts, and full source documents round out the work. To see the Introduction, a list of detailed contents, a generous selection of sample pages, and more, visit the Rebels and Renegades website.

Download or read book Distinctively Baptist Essays on Baptist History written by Walter B. Shurden and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays by different authors is presented as a tribute to Walter B. "Buddy" Shurden, (distinctively Baptist) church historian, teacher, preacher, author, Baptist apologist extraordinaire. The rationale of this celebration of the lifework and influence of Walter Shurden is well stated, for example, in editor Marc Jolley's preface: "[D]uring some of the initial forays of our most-recent and ongoing Fundamentalist-Moderate controversy, there were days when I thought about changing denominations. Shurden's works were instrumental in my remaining a Baptist, not because I could see how Baptists had always had controversies and survived--although that is true--but because he helped me understand that the reason I had been Baptist and would remain so was due to our Baptist distinctives, our freedoms. For so much more, but especially for that understanding, I am forever grateful." Many students, Baptists in the pews, some at the pulpit or lectern, even some who are not "distinctively Baptist" could testify in like terms regarding the ongoing work and influence of Walter B. Shurden. The essays in this collection of course address some of the primary concerns of Walter Shurden, augmenting that already significant lifework.

Download or read book Darkness Falls on the Land of Light written by Douglas L. Winiarski and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This sweeping history of popular religion in eighteenth-century New England examines the experiences of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Drawing on an unprecedented quantity of letters, diaries, and testimonies, Douglas Winiarski recovers the pervasive and vigorous lay piety of the early eighteenth century. George Whitefield's preaching tour of 1740 called into question the fundamental assumptions of this thriving religious culture. Incited by Whitefield and fascinated by miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit--visions, bodily fits, and sudden conversions--countless New Englanders broke ranks with family, neighbors, and ministers who dismissed their religious experiences as delusive enthusiasm. These new converts, the progenitors of today's evangelical movement, bitterly assaulted the Congregational establishment. The 1740s and 1750s were the dark night of the New England soul, as men and women groped toward a restructured religious order. Conflict transformed inclusive parishes into exclusive networks of combative spiritual seekers. Then as now, evangelicalism emboldened ordinary people to question traditional authorities. Their challenge shattered whole communities.

Download or read book The Language of Liberty 1660 1832 written by J. C. D. Clark and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book creates a new framework for the political and intellectual relations between the British Isles and America in a momentous period which witnessed the formation of modern states on both sides of the Atlantic and the extinction of an Anglican, aristocratic and monarchical order. Jonathan Clark integrates evidence from law and religion to reveal how the dynamics of early modern societies were essentially denominational. In a study of British and American discourse, he shows how rival conceptions of liberty were expressed in the conflicts created by Protestant dissent's hostility to an Anglican hegemony. The book argues that this model provides a key to collective acts of resistance to the established order throughout the period. The book's final section focuses on the defining episode for British and American history, and shows the way in which the American Revolution can be understood as a war of religion.