Jesus is female : Moravians and the challenge of radical religion in early America / Aaron Spencer Fogleman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fogleman, Aaron Spencer, author.

Series:

Early American studies.

Early American studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lutheran Church--Relations--Moravian Church in America.

Lutheran Church.

Reformed Church--Relations--Moravian Church in America.

Reformed Church.

Sex--Religious aspects--Moravian Church in America--History of doctrines--18th century.

Sex.

United States--Church history--18th century.

United States.

Moravian Church in America--History--18th century.

Moravian Church in America.

Moravian Church in America--Relations--Lutheran Church.

Moravian Church in America--Relations--Reformed Church.

Moravian Church in America--Doctrines--History--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (349 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2007]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In the middle of the Great Awakening, a group of religious radicals called Moravians came to North America from Germany to pursue ambitious missionary goals. How did the Protestant establishment react to the efforts of this group, which allowed women to preach, practiced alternative forms of marriage, sex, and family life, and believed Jesus could be female? Aaron Spencer Fogleman explains how these views, as well as the Moravians' missionary successes, provoked a vigorous response by Protestant authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. Based on documents in German, Dutch, and English from the Old World and the New, Jesus Is Female chronicles the religious violence that erupted in many German and Swedish communities in colonial America as colonists fought over whether to accept the Moravians, and suggests that gender issues were at the heart of the raging conflict. Colonists fought over the feminine, ecumenical religious order offered by the Moravians and the patriarchal, confessional order offered by Lutheran and Reformed clergy. This episode reveals both the potential and the limits of radical religion in early America. Though religious nonconformity persisted despite the repression of the Moravians, and though America remained a refuge for such groups, those who challenged the cultural order in their religious beliefs and practices would not escape persecution. Jesus Is Female traces the role of gender in eighteenth-century religious conflict back to the European Reformation and the beginnings of Protestantism. This transatlantic approach heightens our understanding of American developments and allows for a better understanding of what occurred when religious freedom in a colonial setting led to radical challenges to tradition and social order.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables

Introduction: The Challenge of Radical Religion

Part I: Religion and Gender

1. Radical Religion in a Colonial Context

2. Gender and Confessional Order in the Protestant World

Part II: The Moravian Challenge

3. The Challenge to Gender Order

4. The Ecumenical Challenge

Part III: Religious Violence and the Defense of Order

5. The Orthodox Response

6. The Confrontation in the Middle Colonies

7. Religious Violence Erupts

Conclusion: The Limits of Radical Religion in America

Appendix 1. Anti-Moravian Polemics Written, Published, or Reprinted in North America, 1741-1763

Appendix 2. Court Cases, Arrests, Imprisonment, and Pursuits of Moravian Preachers in the Mid-Atlantic Colonies of British North America, 1742-1747

Appendix 3. Pastors and Assistants Sent by the Four Competing European Religious Centers to Work in the Lutheran and German Reformed Communities in the Mid- Atlantic Colonies of British North America, 1726-1754

Notes

Bibliography of Primary Sources

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-298) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780812239928

081223992X

9780812291681

0812291689

OCLC:

896850442