Dissertation

RELIGION AND COMMUNITY: CINCINNATI GERMANS, 1814-1870

WHITE, JOSEPH MICHAEL

1980

Overview

The thousands of German immigrants settling in antebellum Cincinnati were a diverse people who created a rich associational life to perpetuate a variety of religious and regional distinctions. The thirty Protestant and Catholic congregations that they supported from 1814--the founding date of the first German Protestant church -- until 1870 reflected the Germans' diversity and their commitment to carrying on traditions brought from the homeland. Drawing from traditional ideas of community life from German home town culture, Cincinnati Germans formed their community life around these congregations. Among the Germans who had contact with a church, three religious subcultures emerged by the end of the period. German Protestants adhering to congregations that had been founded upon local popular initiative without assistance from an outside church or synod comprised 38% of the German church-goers. German Protestants belonging to German-speaking congregations affiliated with and founded by American Protestant denominations composed only about 4% of the church-going Germans. The German Catholics comprised the largest group with 58%. Eight of the ten Protestant churches that local Germans started for themselves were independent congregations carrying on the union tradition of state-established German Protestantism. The union concept combined elements of the Lutheran and Reformed traditions. These congregations, each one representing a set of regional customs or dialect, subscribed to the rationlism that long been predominant in German Protestantism. Belief and piety were generally anti-orthodox and humanist. While not making exacting religious demands on individuals, these churches were supported as social organizations providing a set of useful church services and as a basis for community life with like-minded people. Only two Protestant churches founded on a popular basis before 1870 were theologically conservative. These congregations joined Lutheran and Evangelical synods. A small group of Cincinnati Germans joined German-speaking congregations started by Baptist, Methodist, Reformed, and Presbyterian demoninations. The general unwillingness of most Germans to abandon traditions associated with the religious life and behavior known in the homeland is reflected in the fact that only a small minority joined these American Protestant churches. Unlike the other Protestant and the Catholic German congregations, the American Protestant congregations made no commitment to the preservation of German language and culture. German Roman Catholics established twelve churches and numerous associations on their own initiative and governed them with minimal reference to hierarchical authority. They built a comprehensive community life centered on the neighborhood parish with its church, school, mutual aid societies, and social and religious organizations for all ages. In so doing, they attempted to integrate their religion with all aspects of life. The durability of the German churches when compared to secular community organizations, the nature of community life that they fostered, and the fact that conflicts within local German society were often waged along sectarian lines point to the conclusion that the Germans' primary loyalty lay with their churches. Only through identification with and participation in the life of a particular religious subculture could Germans belong to a community. The total German society in Cincinnati had no common values and interests to command the loyalties of so many diverse individuals.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: American history
• ISBN: 9781083535498, 1083535498