America's Religious Crossroads: Faith and Community in the Emerging Midwest by Stephen T. Kissel

Abstract

Reviewed by: America's Religious Crossroads: Faith and Community in the Emerging Midwest by Stephen T. Kissel Luke Ritter America's Religious Crossroads: Faith and Community in the Emerging Midwest. By Stephen T. Kissel. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2021. 240 pp. $28.00. This clearly written, well-researched book examines the common methods by which various organized religions established viable communities in the Old Northwest from the adoption of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 to the entrance of Wisconsin as a state in 1848. Entering a distant region, sparsely populated, bereft of civil institutions, and increasingly diverse in terms of ethnicity and religious affiliation, early pioneers often relied on religion to create a shared identity, purpose, and system of trust. Kissel argues that organized religions coalesced "chain migrations" to the Old Northwest into a collective, ecumenical "mosaic" of faith-based communities, and thus accelerated the region's development (2, 8, 147). How exactly did migrants find unity across such vast landscapes in the midst of unprecedented ethnic and religious pluralism? Kissel explains how humble homes served as initial meeting places for religious adherents in the Old Northwest. According to Kissel, "the neutral setting of the home offered a more ecumenical environment for religious worship than was generally possible under the rigid doctrines of formal church congregations." Home meetings also advanced the role of women, youths, and people of color (16). In the Old Northwest, itinerancy was necessary. Various denominations invented ways to minister to pioneers across space, including the Methodist itinerant preachers who adopted circuit-riding, Catholic priests who traveled throughout their vast dioceses to connect with incoming Catholic settlers, and Presbyterian ministers who engaged in mission efforts. Unlike in the East, the Great Awakening in the West also promised fresh opportunities for utopian communities such as the Mormons, Shakers, Quakers, and Rappites. As "the antebellum Northwest became a leading national center of religious literary production and distribution," Kissel writes in chapter two, communities came to rely on a steady stream of Bibles, religious [End Page 63] tracts, devotionals, and sermons to articulate their faith (38). Organizations such as the American Bible Society, Western Book Concern, American Sunday School Union, and a host of newspapers promoted popular literacy through the mass production of religious literature. Even utopian communities encouraged literary production, such as the Church of Latter-Day Saints, which relied on the publication of the Book of Mormon for converts. Sunday Schools in the West, funded by Christian missionary efforts, advanced regional literacy long before common schools were established. Women played a prominent role as teachers. Denominationally backed seminaries and colleges established formal higher education in the West, for both Catholics and Protestants, men and women. Colleges helped to promote and advance newly settled towns. Mission schools geared towards Indian students proved problematic, however, since "Religion and civilization were inseparable in the eyes of antebellum missionaries," Kissel writes (78). Americans constructed "sacred spaces" for public fellowship, such as the church, the revival campground, and the utopian settlement, more rapidly than secular meeting places, thus ensuring religion's influence over the region's civic landscape (82). African Americans and immigrants from Europe likewise insisted on building their own sacred havens of worship as a sign of their belonging and participation in the bourgeoning American civic order. Financial assistance trickled in from the East, but the duty to build such institutions often fell upon lay congregants, volunteers, and donors in the West. Church dedications were often widely celebrated, ecumenical events, since they "marked a religious and civic milestone in the evolution of pioneer communities" (96). Revival campgrounds brought in hundreds of people from afar. Utopian settlements, although more closed to outsiders, integrated church and town governance into a sacred space for those on the inside. At a time when civil courts and police were sporadic, churches arbitrated civil and land disputes. Churches frequently administered justice in full view of entire congregations, even entire towns. Church-based disciplinary procedures likewise managed ministerial misconduct. Finally, in chapter six, Kissel shows how various denominations worked together to improve their towns morally, socially, and economically. Religious organizations became intricately involved in civic service, charitable outreach, commerce, and politics. Kissel's claim that the antebellum...