eBook

Smitten

Hessinger, Rodney

2022

Overview

In Smitten , Rodney Hessinger examines how the Second Great Awakening disrupted gender norms across a breadth of denominations. The displacement and internal migration of Americans created ripe conditions for religious competition in the North. Hessinger argues that during this time of religious ferment, religious seekers could, in turn, play the missionary or the convert. The dynamic of religious rivalry inexorably led toward sexual and gender disruption. Contending within an increasingly democratic religious marketplace, preachers had to court converts in order to flourish. They won followers through charismatic allure and making concessions to the desires of the people. Opening their own hearts to new religious impulses, some religious visionaries offered up radical dispensations-including new visions of how God wanted them to reorder sex and gender relations in society. A wide array of churches, including Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, Shakers, Catholics, and Perfectionists, joined the fray. Religious contention and innovation ultimately produced backlash. Charges of seduction and gender trouble ignited fights within, among, and against churches. Religious opponents insisted that the newly converted were smitten with preachers, rather than choosing churches based on reason and scripture. Such criticisms coalesced into a broader pan-Protestant rejection of religious enthusiasm. Smitten reveals the sexual disruptions and subsequent domestication of religion during the Second Great Awakening.

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Subject: 19th Century / American Studies / Christian communities / Christian communities -- United States -- History -- 19th century / Christianity / Christianity -- United States -- History -- 19th century / Church history / Enthusiasm / Enthusiasm -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History -- 19th century / Gender Studies / HISTORY / HISTORY / United States / 19th Century / history of religion in America / RELIGION / RELIGION / Sexuality & Gender Studies / Religious aspects / religious competition / RELIGIOUS STUDIES / Second Great Awakening / Sex / Sex -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History -- 19th century / sex and gender roles in society / Sex role / Sex role -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History -- 19th century / Sexuality & Gender Studies / Sexuality and religion / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Sexuality (see also PSYCHOLOGY / Human Sexuality) / U.S. HISTORY / United States / United States -- Church history -- 19th century / US HISTORY/COLONIAL PERIOD / women and religion / Women in Christianity / Women in Christianity -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• ISBN: 9781501766497, 150176649X, 9781501766473, 1501766473, 9781501766480, 1501766481