The chance of salvation : a history of conversion in America / Lincoln A. Mullen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mullen, Lincoln A., 1984- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Conversion--Christianity--History.

Conversion.

Christianity and other religions.

Religious pluralism.

History.

Proselytizing.

Conversion--Christianity.

United States--Church history.

United States.

Church history.

Proselytizing--United States--History.

Religious pluralism--United States--History.

Christianity and other religions--United States.

Christianity.

Interfaith relations.

Genre:

Church history.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 365 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2017.

Summary:

The Chance of Salvation offers a history of conversions in the United States which shows how religious identity came to be a matter of choice. Shortly after the American Revolution, people in the United States increasingly encountered an expanded array of religious options. Evangelical Protestants began an effort to convert Americans, while developing new practices that emphasized conversion as an immediate choice. Their missionary effort extended to Native American nations such as the Cherokee in the Southeast, who received Christianity on their own terms. Enslaved and newly freed African Americans likewise created a variety of Christian conversion that was centered on religious hope and eschatological expectation. Mormons, drawing on earlier Protestant practices and beliefs, enthusiastically proselytized for a new tradition that emphasized individual choice and free will. By uncovering the way that religious identity is structured as an obligatory decision, this book explains why Americans change their religions so much, and why the United States is both highly religious in terms of religious affiliation and very secular in the sense that no religion is an unquestioned default.-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : Religion as choice

Prayer: Protestant converts and the sinner's prayer

Gift: Cherokee converts and the reception of missions

Hope: African American converts and the jubilee

Kingdom: Mormon converts and the primitive gospel

Sincerity: Jewish converts and resistance to missions

Repose: Catholic converts and the rejection of the sect system

Conclusion William James and obligatory choice.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674975620

0674975626

OCLC:

994144474