Category Books

A Republic of Righteousness: The Public Christianity of the Post-Revolutionary New England Clergy »

Authors: Jonathan D. Sassi
ISBN-13: 9780195129892, ISBN-10: 019512989X
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: October 2001
Edition: (Non-applicable)

Author Biography: Jonathan D. Sassi

College of Staten Island, CUNY

Book Synopsis

This book examines the debate over the connection between religion and public life in society during the fifty years following the American Revolution. Sassi challenges the conventional wisdom, finding an essential continuity to the period's public Christianity, whereas most previous studies have seen this period as one in which the nation's cultural paradigm shifted from republicanism to liberal individualism. Focusing on the Congregational clergy of New England, he demonstrates that throughout this period there were Americans concerned with their corporate destiny, retaining a commitment to constructing a righteous community and assessing the cosmic meaning of the American experiment.

	Introduction	3
1	The Standing Order's Corporate Vision, 1783-1795	19
2	The Two Kingdoms in Concert 1783-1799	52
3	Jeffersonians Disillusions and Dreams, 1799-1818	84
4	Grassroots Changes and Regional Ideology, 1800-1815	121
5	Public Christianity's Renewal and Realignment, 1815-1833	145
6	Public Christianity's Relevance to Understanding Reform	185
	Epilogue	196
	Notes	203
	Index	291