Business of the heart : religion and emotion in the nineteenth century / John Corrigan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Corrigan, John, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Revivals--Massachusetts--Boston--History--19th century.

Revivals.

Emotions--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--19th century.

Emotions.

Protestants--Massachusetts--Boston--History--19th century.

Protestants.

Businessmen--Religious life--Massachusetts--Boston.

Businessmen.

Businessmen--Religious life.

History.

Emotions--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines.

Emotions--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Massachusetts--Boston.

Physical Description:

xii, 389 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2002]

Summary:

The "Businessman's Revival" was a religious revival among white, middle-class Protestants that unfolded in the wake of the 1857 market crash. Delving into the religious history of Boston in the 1850s, John Corrigan uses the revival as a focal point for addressing many aspects of American culture, such as gender roles and family life, the history of the theater and public spectacle, education, boyculture, and, especially, ideas about emotion during this period.

This vividly written narrative recovers the emotional experiences of individuals from a wide array of little-used sources, including diaries, journals, correspondence, and public records. From such sources, Corrigan discovers that for these Protestants the expression of emotion was a matter of transaction. They saw emotion as a commodity and conceptualized relations between people, and between individuals and God, as transactions of emotion governed by contract. Religion became a business relation with God -- with prayer as its legal tender. Entering this relationship, they were conducting the "business of the heart."

Corrigan's innovative study shows that the revival -- with its commodification of emotional experience -- became an occasion for white Protestants to underscore differences between themselves and others. The display of emotion was a primary indicator of membership in the Protestant majority, as much as language, skin color, or dress. In unraveling the significance of these culturally constructed standards for emotional life, Corrigan's book makes an important contribution to recent efforts to explore the links between religion and emotion and is a compelling new chapter in the history of religion.

Contents:

Introduction: Religion, Emotion, and the Double Self 1

1. The Businessmen's Revival 12

2. The Anxiety of Boston at Mid-Century 41

3. Overexcitement, Economic Collapse, and the Regulation of Business 61

4. Emotion, Collective Performance, and Value 82

5. Emotional Religion and the Ministerial "Balance-Wheel" 104

6. Men, Women, and Emotion 128

7. Domestic Contracts 163

8. Clerks, Apprentices, and Boyculture 186

9. Prayerful Transactions 207

10. Emotion, Character, and Ethnicity 231

Epilogue: The Meaning of the Revival and Its Legacy 251

Appendix 1. History, Religion, and Emotion: A Historiographical Survey 269

Appendix 2. Emotion as Heart, Blood, and Body 281

Appendix 3. Emotion and the Common Sense Philosophy 294

Selected Manuscript Diaries, Journals, Correspondences, and Papers 367.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-365) and index.

ISBN:

0520221966

OCLC:

47696360