Identifying the image of God : radical Christians and nonviolent power in the antebellum United States / Dan McKanan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McKanan, Dan, 1967-

Series:

Religion in America series (Oxford University Press)

Religion in America series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christian sociology--United States--History--19th century.

Christian sociology.

Liberalism (Religion)--United States--History--19th century.

Liberalism (Religion).

Image of God--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Image of God.

Social aspects.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

viii, 294 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002.

Summary:

Between 1820 and 1860, American social reformers invited all people to identify God's image in the victims of war, slavery, and addiction. Identifying the Image of God traces the theme of identification--and its liberal Christian roots--through the literature of social reform, focusing on sentimental novels, temperance tales, and slave narratives, and invites contemporary activists to revive the "politics of identification."

Contents:

Introduction: The Power of Identification 3

1. Wheat and Tares: The Liberal Encounter with Puritan Violence 11

2. From Sentimentality to Social Reform: The Emergence of Radical Christian Liberalism 46

3. The Gospel, the Declaration, and the Divine Child: Theology and Literature of Ultra Reform 66

4. Looking for Victims: Violence and Theology in Temperance Narratives 102

5. Through the Blood-Stained Gate: Violence, Birth, and the Imago Dei in Fugitive Slave Narratives 127

6. Epics of Ambivalence: Nonviolent Power in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Antislavery Novels 157

7. Violent Messiahs: Radical Christian Liberals and the Civil War 174

Conclusion: Liberal Irony 215.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-279) and index.

ISBN:

0195145321

OCLC:

50227850