The Chance of Salvation: A History of Conversion in America

by Lincoln A. Mullen

Overview

The United States has a long history of religious pluralism, and yet Americans have often thought that people’s faith determines their eternal destinies. The result is that Americans switch religions more often than any other nation. The Chance of Salvation traces the history of the distinctively American idea that religion is a matter of individual choice.

Lincoln Mullen shows how the willingness of Americans to change faiths, recorded in narratives that describe a wide variety of conversion experiences, created a shared assumption that religious identity is a decision. In the nineteenth century, as Americans confronted a growing array of religious options, pressures to convert altered the basis of American religion. Evangelical Protestants emphasized conversion as a personal choice, while Protestant missionaries brought Christianity to Native American nations such as the Cherokee, who adopted Christianity on their own terms. Enslaved and freed African Americans similarly created a distinctive form of Christian conversion based on ideas of divine justice and redemption. Mormons proselytized for a new tradition that stressed individual free will. American Jews largely resisted evangelism while at the same time winning converts to Judaism. Converts to Catholicism chose to opt out of the system of religious choice by turning to the authority of the Church.

By the early twentieth century, religion in the United States was a system of competing options that created an obligation for more and more Americans to choose their own faith. Religion had changed from a family inheritance to a consciously adopted identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674975620
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	08/28/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	734,140
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lincoln A. Mullen is Assistant Professor of History and Art History at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction Religion as Choice 1

1 Prayer Protestant Converts and the Sinner's Prayer 23

2 Gift Cherokee Converts and the Reception of Missions 64

5 Hope African American Converts and the Jubilee 103

4 Kingdom Mormon Converts and the Primitive Gospel 132

5 Sincerity Jewish Converts and Resistance to Missions 173

6 Repose Catholic Converts and the Sect System 221

Conclusion "Maybes Are the Essence of the Situation" 270

Note on Sources 287

Notes 289

Acknowledgments 355

Index 359

Editorial Reviews

This freshly synthetic work shows how religious choice developed as the backbone of American religious life…An important book and a pleasure to read.

Church History

The Chance of Salvation deftly captures the chaotic nature of American religion in the 19th century…Mullen helps us see how a distinctly evangelical approach to salvation had ripple effects beyond evangelicals, and he should be commended for it.

Christianity Today - Josh McMullen

A valuable contribution for readers to understand the dynamics of conversion and religious history in the United States. It is also beneficial for those who examine the American religious landscape, pluralism, and the origins of why Americans often change religious affiliations.

Abel Rios

Engagingly written…[Mullen] historicizes an important aspect of the complicated but infinitely fascinating democratization of American religion.

American Nineteenth Century History

Offers an exciting topic, provocative set of questions, and a trove of intriguing vignettes. It is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read in a long time.

Bulletin for the Study of Religion

Looking at American religious history through the lens of conversion brings forth many interesting tales of 19th-century subjects grappling with changing landscapes of religion and philosophical thought.

Choice

Marvelous…Recognizing that all conversions contain losses and gains, Mullen approaches his topic with both intellectual depth and nuance and with empathy for the struggles, losses, and victories of the millions of people who took new paths in their spiritual and religious lives in 19th-century America.

Reading Religion

Quite successful…in illustrating the varieties of religious experience in nineteenth-century America and in conveying some of the meanings they held for the converts.

American Historical Review

11/01/2017
Americans switch religions more frequently than people from just about any other nation. Mullen (history, George Mason Univ.) connects this phenomenon with the distinctively, though not uniquely, American idea that religion is a choice rather than an inheritance. The shift towards this concept can be traced back to the 19th century. In this book, Mullen illustrates this religious development through a captivating assortment of individual 19th century conversion narratives. These stories include Protestant, Catholic, African American, Mormon, Jewish, and Cherokee converts and conclude with the work of psychologist and philosopher William James, from whom the title of this book is drawn. Despite the wide variation in the details of these accounts, all of them helped to shape religious identity in the United States in ways that continue to distinguish it from its European counterparts. One recurring theme is the way in which the vast array of religious options obligated Americans to choose a religious identity, helping to explain the apparent contradiction of Americans simultaneously becoming more religious and more secular during this period. VERDICT This well-written and innovative work will be enjoyed by students of American religious history and those interested in investigating the deeper historical roots of contemporary American spirituality.—Brian Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY

Library Journal