Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America

Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America

by John H. Wigger
ISBN-10:
0195104528
ISBN-13:
9780195104523
Pub. Date:
02/01/1998
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0195104528
ISBN-13:
9780195104523
Pub. Date:
02/01/1998
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America

Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America

by John H. Wigger
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Overview

Following the Revolutionary War, American Methodism grew at an astonishing rate, rising from fewer than 1000 members in 1770 to over 250,000 by 1820. In Taking Heaven by Storm, John H. Wigger seeks to explain this remarkable expansion, offering a provocative reassessment of the role of popular religion in American life.

Early Methodism was neither bland nor predictable; rather, it was a volatile and innovative movement, both driven and constrained by the hopes and fears of the ordinary Americans who constituted its core. Methodism's style, tone, and agenda worked their way deep into the fabric of American life, Wigger argues, influencing all other mass religious movements that would follow, as well as many facets of American life not directly connected to the church.

Wigger examines American Methodism from a variety of angles, focusing in turn on the circuit riders who relentlessly pushed the Methodist movement forward, the critical role of women and African Americans within the movement, the enthusiastic nature of Methodist worship, and the unique community structure of early American Methodism. Under Methodism's influence, American evangelism became far more enthusiastic, egalitarian, entrepreneurial, and lay oriented—characteristics that continue to shape and define popular religion today.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195104523
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 02/01/1998
Series: Religion in America
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range: 12 - 17 Years

About the Author

John Wigger is an associate professor of history at the University of Missouri.

 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrationsxiii
1The Emergence of American Methodism3
2The Methodist Connection21
3The Methodist Itinerant48
4The Social Principle80
5A Boiling Hot Religion104
6Slavery and African-American Methodism125
7Sisters and Mothers in Israel151
8Methodism Transformed173
Appendix197
Notes201
Index261
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