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Bearing Witness against Sin

The Evangelical Birth of the American Social Movement

Michael P Young author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:3rd Sep '07

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Bearing Witness against Sin cover

During the 1830s, the United States experienced a wave of movements for social change over temperance, the abolition of slavery, anti-vice activism, and a host of other moral reforms. While these efforts have mostly been considered independently of one another, Michael P. Young argues, for the first time in "Bearing Witness against Sin" that together they represented a distinctive new style of mobilization - one that prefigured contemporary forms of social protest by underscoring the role of national religious structures. In this book, Young identifies a new strain of protest that challenged antebellum Americans to take personal responsibility for reforming social problems. At this point in history, national sins, such as slaveholding were first being recognized for their unmatched evil and sinfulness. This newly awakened consciousness coupled with a confessional style of protest seized the American imagination and took off in a way that galvanized thousands of people. Such a phenomenon, Young argues, helps explain the lives of charismatic reformers such as William Lloyd Garrison, the Grimke sisters, and many others. Marshalling lively historical materials, including letters and life histories of reformers, "Bearing Witness against Sin" is a revelatory account of how religion lay at the heart of social reform.

"In Bearing Witness against Sin, Michael Young offers a creative and insightful reconsideration of the specifically religious origins of the national social movement in America. This is a significant contribution to our understanding of the role of religion in politics and of the political capacities of religious traditions." - Christian Smith, author of American Evangelism: Embattled and Thriving"

ISBN: 9780226960852

Dimensions: 23mm x 15mm x 2mm

Weight: 454g

248 pages