The sacred flame of love : Methodism and society in nineteenth-century Georgia / Christopher H. Owen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Owen, Christopher H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Methodist Church--Georgia--History--19th century.

Methodist Church.

Methodism.

History.

Church history.

Georgia--Church history--19th century.

Georgia.

Methodism--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

xx, 290 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ga. : University of Georgia Press, [1998]

Summary:

Attempting to restore subtlety and nuance to the study of southern religion, The Sacred Flame of Love ranges across the entire nineteenth century to chronicle the evolution of the institutions, theology, and social attitudes of Georgia Methodists in light of such phenomena, trends, and events as slavery, class prejudice, republicanism, population growth, economic development, sectional politics, war, emancipation, and urban growth.

In connecting Methodist history with the larger social transformation of nineteenth-century Georgia, Christopher H. Owen uncovers a story of considerable complexity and variety. Because Georgia Methodists included people from every social class, few generalizations apply properily to all of them. For many years they were loosely united by common adherence to the ideals of Wesleyan evangelicalism, but economic and political developments would gradually accentuate Methodist social divisions and weaken even this bond. Indeed, deviating far from the conception of unchanging and asocial southern religion often held by scholars. Owen sees both church and society undergoing enormous change in the nineteenth century.

"The Sacred Flame of Love is well researched, well written, and fills an important gap in the rapidly expanding historiography of southern religion". -- Randy J. Sparks, author of On Jordan's Stormy Banks

Contents:

Chapter 1 Precious Souls, Worth Worlds: Georgia Methodist Foundations in Europe and America, 1736-1800 1

Chapter 2 The Time That Prophets Were Foretelling: Camp Meeting Methodism in Georgia, 1801-1820 10

Chapter 3 All Hearts Bid Us Welcome: A Slaveholder's Millennium, 1821-1844 28

Chapter 4 A Large Portion of the Methodist Family: The Spiritual Secession of Georgia Wesleyanism, 1845-1861 57

Chapter 5 Let Us Not Glory in Men: Georgia Methodists and the Civil War, 1861-1865 93

Chapter 6 One Work of Preaching the Gospel: The Reconstruction and Redemption of Georgia Methodism, 1865-1880 114

Chapter 7 Perfection and Democracy Do Not Go Together: The Ideological Disintegration of Georgia Methodism, 1881-1906 149

Appendix 1 Methodists as a Percentage of the Georgia Population, 1790-1906 189

Appendix 2 Growth in Methodist Population in Georgia by Race, 1790-1906 190.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-283) and index.

ISBN:

0820319635

OCLC:

37721319