The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789-1880 (review)

Abstract

The Word the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading America, 1789-1880. By Candy Gunther Brown. (Chapel Hill: University North Carolina Press, 2004. Pp. xiv, 336. Illustrations. Cloth, $59.95; paper, $19.95.)An insightful study the emergence a print culture among U.S. evangelicals, Candy Gunther Brown's work argues that nineteenth-century evangelical Christians created a textual community around the Bible, pamphlets, religious novels, memoirs godly persons, tracts, and hymns. These various printed media were designed to assist the converted a purer exercise the Christian faith while asserting a more tangible evangelical presence the world. The Holy Spirit, evangelicals believed, would transform the hearts and minds the unconverted as they encountered these texts. An underlying tension between the sacred and profane underlay this emerging print culture. The business selling and the confusion about what genres literature were appropriate for religious people drove an ongoing debate among evangelical leaders about remaining in the without becoming of the (John 17:15-17). In time, an evolving (80) evangelical works gained acceptance among the faithful. This canon did not supplant, but was based upon, the Bible, and printed works other than the Bible were considered appropriate if they emphasized and illustrated key biblical precepts. In short, the new genres served to reinforce, not replace, the traditional word the Bible.Brown traces this emerging print culture eight chapters, showing how evangelicals sought to ensure that they were transforming an unregenerate world rather than being tainted by its secular substance. The first four chapters define and chart the progress and challenges wrought by evangelical print media. For example, evangelical print culture emerged during the age American Romanticism. Evangelical writers appealed to emotion but were careful to distinguish their appeal from the heterodox religious opinions articulated by New England transcendentalists. The revealed word the Scriptures and the intercession the Holy Spirit were the key agencies for evangelicals their concept the Priesthood the Believer. Evangelical publishers and writers struggled to focus on their distinct religious mission even as their products sold to both denominational and secular audiences. Increasingly, evangelical publishers made use literary fiction, but they explicitly defined their efforts as illustrating gospel truths hypothetical scenes attached to real life, not as appeals to base and sensual instincts. What was appropriate reading and what was morally tempting secular literature became more and more difficult to discern this era multiplying evangelical genres. A class arbiters emerged the religious press, refereeing matter for its suitableness promoting spiritual growth or conversion.The final four chapters show, among other things, the attempt by evangelicals to assert their denominational proclivities while affirming a true church all believers. Herein lies the most contentious part the book, and Brown succeeds part making this fine point. Students the religious press have often noted how contentious it was, even on the basic mechanics salvation. Was baptism a sign conversion or necessary to effect conversion? What was the proper mode baptism? And, course, did the Bible countenance slavery? Given that churches waged theological battle with one another over doctrine arid intersectional missionary societies broke fellowship over appointing slaveholders as missionaries, her point seems, on first reading, wide the mark. …