Protestant Religion Research Articles

Consecrated Merchants and Midnight Criers: Commercial Evangelicalism and a Jazz Theory of Gender Distinctions in Nineteenth-Century America

Drawing on Jeanne Boydston’s “aesthetic of jazz” and the contributions of queer theory, this article complicates notions of a “normative” gender binary and feminized Protestant religion in nineteenth-century America. Evangelical tract and book sellers known as “colporteurs” constructed spiritual personalities that failed to organize neatly around a gender binary, combining private, passive, and dependent roles as servants and employees with conquering, public identities as sellers of the gospel message. Moving away from a focus on female preaching and the liminal gender fluidity of “fringe” sects, this paper argues that colportage reflected a larger cultural instability in the gender binary where spiritual selling collapsed conventional masculine and feminine traits, opening a queer space for expressions beyond the gender line. Tracing colporteur identities from the American Tract Society and Millerites of the 1840s to the International Bible Students of the 1890s and 1900s, this article suggests that colportage was one expression of the vast variation and instability of potential gender identities that marked America in the nineteenth century.

Wyznaniowe zróżnicowanie kultury gospodarczej. O ideologicznym nadużyciu znanej tezy

More than one hundred years ago, Max Weber agued that the Protestant religion, particularly the religious ideas of Calvinism and the Puritan ethic, played a positive role in creating the capitalistic spirit. The article hereby attempts to show that this thesis (the Protestant Ethic Thesis) gradually evolved into different stereotypes. It also appeared to be especially prone to some ideological abuse. The description of these stereotypes and different forms of abuse has been preceded with attempts to answer some questions such as: Is the cultural context of economic life really differentiated with regard to religious ideas? Is Max Weber’s thesis timeless? In fact, the results of various kinds of research allow to falsify the thesis given above. It is the real religious faith as such and not its content that is economically significant. However, there are some cultural differences between Catholics and Protestants that are determined by their religious faith. These differences concern rather e.g. their different focus on the value hierarchy or significance attached to satisfying needs.

Denuded Devotion to Christ: The Ascetic Piety of Protestant True Religion in the Reformation. By LARRY D. HARWOOD.

Denuded Devotion to Christ: The Ascetic Piety of Protestant True Religion in the Reformation. By LARRY D. HARWOOD.

Religious culture, democratisation and patterns of technological innovation

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the interaction among technological innovation, democratisation and predominant religious culture of countries, as well as some critical socio-economic determinants of technological outputs. The findings show that countries with a predominance of the Protestant, Jewish and Eastern religions have technological performance higher than countries with other predominant religious cultures. In addition, the statistical evidence, in general, confirms de facto the hypothesis that higher religious fractionalisation, ceteris paribus , may support innovative outputs, in particular among the richer and more democratic countries, which are mainly located in the European and North-American geo-economic areas.

Socio-cultural origins of the patterns of technological innovation: What is the likely interaction among religious culture, religious plurality and innovation? Towards a theory of socio-cultural drivers of the patterns of technological innovation

Religion shapes people's attitude of mind, education, culture and institutions of countries and likely is a main socio-cultural determinant of the patterns of technological innovation. This study analyses the process of technological innovation exploring the predominant religious culture of countries and tests the hypothesis that a higher religious plurality, a main proxy of cultural diversity, the higher the technological outputs in advanced economies. The findings show that, on average, societies with a predominance of the Protestant, Jewish and Eastern religions tend to have technological performance higher than societies with other predominant religious cultures. In addition, the statistical evidence supports de facto the hypothesis that a higher religious fractionalization, ceteris paribus, has a positive effect on technological outputs. This appears to be particularly true among richer and more democratic countries, which are mainly located in the European and North-American geo-economic areas. Further discussion is needed to understand true causality for developing a socio-economic theory of the origins of patterns of technological innovation.

Therapeutic Culture and Religion in America

AbstractMuch has been written about the psychologization of different spheres of contemporary American culture (education, industrial–military complex, health care, etc.) from different disciplinary perspectives. In this article, I will discuss the concept of therapeutic culture in relation to religion in America. The essay will trace contemporary therapeutic culture back to the mind cure movement and “New Thought” and its concept of the instrumental power of thoughts. A variety of 20th century developments that can be framed both as secular and as religious or spiritual, such as positive thinking, self‐help, 12‐step programs, New Age, and the so‐called Prosperity Gospel, have predecessors in New Thought. Furthermore, the essay will survey early influential works on therapeutic culture in America. Philip Rieff'sTriumph of the Therapeutic(1966), Christopher Lasch'sThe Culture of Narcissism(1979), and Eva S. Moskowitz's more recent studyIn Therapy We Trust(2001) are based on the idea that traditional Protestant religion has been eroded and replaced by the therapeutic ethos. These authors are concerned that America has traded its soul for its psyche and has swapped religion for therapy. In contrast, Eva Illouz'Saving the Modern Soul(2008) introduces a more comprehensive understanding of the therapeutic discourse as a new cultural matrix that permeates society as a whole. Moreover, a discussion of different historical studies on the interrelation of Protestant religious cultures and therapeutic ethos in the United States will demonstrate that it is not simply a relationship of replacement but one of intricate interconnection and entanglement. The works under discussion show that clinical pastoral education programs, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the Salvation Army adapted psychology and therapy to facilitate religious counseling, to foster outreach to homeless men, and to create spiritual engagement and fellowship among inebriates. As I explore the relationship between therapeutic culture and religion in America, I will point out central themes, possible shortcomings of approaches to the therapeutic so far, and desirable avenues for future research into the interplay of the therapeutic and religion.

Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest by Hamid Dabashi (review)

Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest by Hamid Dabashi (review)

Raising Christian children in early modern England: Salvation, education and the family

Changes in prescribed doctrine, through the removal of the direct association between baptism and salvation, created much ambiguity surrounding child salvation in post-Reformation England. Despite this, Protestant religion provided a constructive and positive framework for raising the young, set out in a range of family advice manuals, written by Protestant clerics. Within this framework, ideal models of behaviour were narrated for both parents and children. Such idealized narratives provide us with a glimpse of what kind of behaviour was expected of both parents and children in this period, and also what kind of world these families inhabited.

Linguistic, religious and national loyalties in Alsace

In Alsace, a confessionally mixed region with a Catholic majority and quite a large Protestant minority, religion and language have habitually been considered stronger cultural identity markers than national belonging. Since the Reformation, Lutheranism has traditionally been linked to Germany and the German language, while Catholicism has often been seen as connected to France and French. The present article investigates salient linguistic, religious and national features in this French border region, mainly drawn from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Furthermore, an account of interviews conducted with a Lutheran Alsatian family makes clear that these matters are still of immediate interest. The informants provide an illustration of how religion still influences language use, linguistic choices and cultural identity, and how it may contribute both to language maintenance and to the ongoing language shift from the Germanic varieties (German and Alsatian) to French.

Book Review: Europe: Shi'ism: A Religion of Protest

Book Review: Europe: Shi'ism: A Religion of Protest

Le basi culturali delle politiche per la famiglia negli anni 1950 e 1960 e il ruolo dei valori religiosi

The "housewife model of the male breadwinner marriage" is a specific cultural family model based on two main ideas: a separation of the "public" and "private" spheres, which in turn implies a corollary location for both genders, and the notion of protected childhood within the privacy of the household. It is considered to be the cultural basis of conservative family policies, but its influence differed across West European countries in the 1950s and 1960s. In the present chapter the Author discusses how these crossnational differences can be explained, paying particular attention on the specific relevance played by religious values. In this regard, it is a common assumption that the housewife model is embedded in Catholic religious values, whereas the Protestant religion supports more modern family models. In this essay, by contrast, it is argued that there was no direct link between the dominance of Catholic or Protestant religion and the cultural basis of the family policies in a given country. The Author shows that the origins and development of the housewife model were not connected with Catholic values and that its main supporter, in fact, was the urban bourgeoisie. This cultural model of family laid the ground for the overall gender culture, and gave a common trait to the different religious pillars of the Catholic, Calvinistic, and Lutheran religions. We surmise that factors other than differences in the dominant religion/s per se played a pivotal role, including the social role of the urban bourgeoisie, socio-economic structures, and the density of settlement.

PROTESTANTISM AND PROGRESS IN THE YEAR XII: CHARLES VILLERS'SESSAY ON THE SPIRIT AND INFLUENCE OF LUTHER'S REFORMATION(1804)

This article examines Charles Villers'sEssay on the Spirit and Influence of Luther's Reformation(1804) in its intellectual and historical context. Exiled from France after 1792, Villers intervened in important French and German debates about the relationship of religion, history, and philosophy. The article shows how he took up a German Protestant discussion on the meaning of the Reformation that had been underway from the 1770s through the end of the century, including efforts by Kantians to seize the mantle of Protestantism for themselves. Villers's essay capitalized on a broad interest in the question of Protestantism and its meaning for modern freedom around 1800. Revisiting the formation of the narrative of Protestantism and progress reveals that it was not a logical progression from Protestant theology or religion but rather part of a specific ideological and social struggle in the wake of the French Revolution and the collapse of the Old Regime.

The Founding Fathers and the debate over religion in Revolutionary America: a history in documents

The Founding Fathers and Debate over Religion in Revolutionary America: A History in Documents. Edited by Matthew L. Harris and Thomas S. Kidd. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, Pp. ix, 196. $19.95, paper.); Faith of Founders: Religion and New Nation, 1776-1826. By Edwin S. Gaustad. 2nd ed. (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2011, ix, 173, illus.. $24.95 paper.); Faith of Postwar Presidents: From Truman to Obama. By David L. Holmes. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2012, xiii, 396. $29.95.)The first book, an anthology edited by Matthew L. Harris and Thomas S. Kidd, offers forty-three documents centering on role of in revolutionary America. The perceptive introduction, together with accompanying selections, reveals complexity of issues relating to or nature of founder's beliefs. It is hardly surprising that Anyone trying to project current political disputes onto revolutionary past quickly stumbles (23). Some documents contain surprises. One learns, for example, that many revolutionary state constitutions included religious oaths for office-holding, with the Christian Protestant religion declared as established faith of South Carolina (43). More evidence is needed for authors' claim that Madison saw humans as basically good (85). The omission of two crucial sentences from selection of Franklin's Autobiography (1791), leads to less nuanced portrait of man's than was actually case (166). The authors assert that Hamilton favored elite merchants and profit-driven manufacturers while Jefferson sought nation dominated by independent farmers, claim that such works as Forrest McDonald's Presidency of Thomas Jefferson (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas,1976) have found at best simplistic.The late Edwin Gaustad, long major figure in writing American church history, offers revision of his Faith of Founders, first published in 1986. Based on James Sprunt lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary (Richmond), this beautifully written book shows complexity of church-state relations in early republic. Gaustad portrays Jefferson and Madison as libertarians: Jefferson was sufficiently secular to oppose thanksgiving proclamations, days of prayer, and times of devotion; Madison did not want military chaplains. The author calls Franklin surely freethinker (51) though Autobiography and 1790 letter to Yale president Ezra Stiles convey more conventional deism. Similarly Gaustad claims that George Washington, though nominally an Anglican, manifested a cool deism (64). The worldview of John Adams might be most fascinating of all, for second president found doctrine of original sin, in Gaustad's words, a cheap and easy escape from moral responsibility (77). Adams saw John Wesley as one of most remarkable Characters that enthusiasm, superstition, fanaticism ever produced (80). He took peculiar position of detesting Calvinism while affirming God's absolute sovereignty.The third book is written by David Holmes, who has contributed another valuable work on this topic, The Faiths of Founding Fathers (New York: Oxford, 2006). In an equally excellent study, Holmes now tackles span of presidents ranging from Truman to Obama. Holmes's style is lively, his research extensive, showing grounding in myriad of biographies, articles, websites, and manuscript collections in presidential libraries. …

Book Review: Pyong Gap Min: Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America

This important book is animated by the author’s suspicion that Protestant religion may not function for Korean Americans the way the literature claims Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism did for past waves of immigrants from Europe, namely to preserve their ethnicity. The chief reason is that Protestantism is alien, not indigenous, to Korean culture. Min resourcefully puts this intuition to empirical test by contrasting the ethnic consciousness of Korean Protestant and Indian Hindu immigrants in New York across both the first and second generations, under the very reasonable premise that Hinduism is thoroughly indigenous to India. This ambitious research plan entailed questionnaire surveys, personal interviews and site visits enlisting the talents of many Korean and Indian students at Queens College and the City University of New York. The methods and findings are documented in sufficient detail that the book should be considered required reading for researchers in religion race, ethnicity and immigration in the U.S. But first it is necessary to dispose of the issue of what the literature claims. As indicated by his title, Min is under the impression that religion in the U.S. has been supposed to preserve ethnicity. That is not what I interpret one of Min’s touchstone texts, namely Herberg’s Protestant, Catholic, Jew, to say, nor, as a contributor to the literature, what I have myself proposed. As implied by his ‘‘triple melting pot’’ thesis, Herberg claimed that ethnicity over time ‘‘transmuted’’ into religion, so that by the third European American generation, the primary residue of immigrants’ culture that would be available to their grandchildren to embrace would, in fact, be their religion. In my own work, I have proposed that religion in the U.S. is uniquely situated for the expression of post-1965 immigrants’ home country culture but that their children typically have much less interest in home country ways and often more interest in religion, which they may perceive as a less parochial, more universalistic identity. So, if it turns out that second generation Korean Protestants

William Byrd: Political and Recusant Composer

Amidst the pendulum of political and religious upheaval that pervaded England throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth century, William Byrd stands as one of the best loved and lauded composers. Byrd succeeded in the secular and sacred realms, contributing great works to the Anglican Church, popularizing the English madrigal and producing prolific amounts of sacred music. However, in a time where one’s religious beliefs were often linked with political loyalty, Byrd defied his monarch’s established and enforced Protestant religion, composing politically charged music for recusant use in clandestine Catholic Church services. His themes were aligned with the Jesuit mission and his texts were often drawn from the lips of martyred Catholics at the gallows; their last words forever immortalized by Byrd for the furthering of the Jesuit cause and the Counter-Reformation. The examination of sources by prominent Byrd scholars, an analyses of Byrd’s ‘political’ compositions and a study of the social and historical background are used to place Byrd within the appropriate context, prove his recusant and political leanings, and analyze his precarious relationship with the English monarch, Elizabeth I. It is shown that Byrd could not have proceeded with his recusant practices, personally or musically, had it not been for his status as a composer, as well as Byrd’s shrewdness in procuring diplomatic relationships with high persons at court and with Queen Elizabeth I through the Chapel Royal. Finally, Byrd’s success at writing for the Anglican Church service and popular secular music showcased his ability to take a moderate stance in situations that benefitted his status with the crown.

Magical Practice in the Latin West: Papers from the International Conference Held at the University of Zaragoza, 30 Sept.–1 Oct. 2005. Edited by Richard L. Gordon and Franciscó Marco Simón. (Religions in the Graeco-Roman World.) Leiden: Brill, 2009. 676 pp. ISBN 978-90-04-17904-2 (hbk.)

Review of Magical Practice in the Latin West: Papers from the International Conference held at the University of Zaragoza, 30Sept- 1Oct 2005 Brill This hefty and rewarding volume brings us the good news: the Latin-speaking West offers scholars a gold mine of material remains from diverse rituals aimed at pleading with, asking politely, legally binding and threatening all sorts of supernatural figures for all sorts of very human ends. Unfortunately the theoretical frameworks for analyzing these remains are marred by lingering remains of Victorian evolutionary models ranging from lingering notions of “primitive” pagan and Jewish rituals to compulsive magic as a precursor of proper Protestant religion (magic as a cheaper, more convenient, more vulgarized version of religion). Given the size of the volume, I will outline the range of materials discussed and the types of questions they raise. The volume opens auspiciously with James Rives’ meticulous review of the uses of the term “magus.” He traces its complex development from a narrow focus on a distinct type of religious practitioner to the “broad range of associations” found in an author such as Pliny. Poetic usage may turn out to be exotic (p. 74), a valuable demonstration of how phrases shift nuance as they move from genre to genre. The subsequent chapter, Matthew Dickie’s survey of Latin historians attitudes towards magic, is less convincing since it is not always clear what exact is being mapped. Tacitus has what appears to be a totally strategic definition of magic as basically disapproved religion. Lucian does not believe in magic but it is not clear what he does believe in and therefore what exactly he is rejecting. For Dio Cassius, Hadrian’s interest in magic was one aspect of a generally lurid personality. To what extant is Dickie talking about the same thing as the ancient authors, especially when what he is mapping is their lack of use of a set of terms? In “Heretical Texts and maleficium in the Codex Theodosianus,” Maria Victoria Escribano Pano demonstrates neatly the tight connection between charges of heresy and of magic. Heresy charges emerge as the church expands it authority over practitioners who did not think their form of Christianity problematic . So too the contours of charges of magic change as various types of rituals gain or lose clear standing as part of an authoritative religious structure. Pano’s fascinating question about the status of the codex as an especially powerful object

Early Modern Migration from the Mid-Wales County of Radnorshire to Southeastern Pennsylvania, with Special Reference to Three Meredith Families

In 1971 the Honorable Thomas M. Rees of California observed that "very little has been written of what the Welsh have contributed in all walks of life to the shaping of American history." In 1979 historian David Galenson maintained that "the issue of the composition of America's early immigrants is an impor-tant one and will continue to receive considerable attention from historians who seek to understand the social and economic history of colonial America." However, Douglas Greenburg's examination of the historiography of the middle colonies revealed that Pennsylvania, which witnessed the immigration of many early modern Welsh Quaker migrants, has not attracted as much attention from researchers as has its neighboring states.

Shi'ism: a religion of protest

Shi'ism: a religion of protest

La abstención electoral como protesta

El objetivo del artículo es demostrar que el fenómeno de abstención manifestado en las elecciones federales de 2003 en México fue determinada por cuatro variables: desinterés por la política, profesar la religión protestante, no dar importancia a Dios, y preferir la responsabilidad gubernamental a la individual. Para el autor, la influencia de esas variables en la abstención electoral no es sólo aislada sino se aplica en conjunto; del mismo modo, expresa que las variables antes mencionadas son distintivas de la sociedad que participó en ese momento, y permiten pensar en una expresión de protesta, más no de apatía.

A Model For The Regulation Of Technology Innovation

Technology has had an impact on society for centuries. Martin Luther wouldnt have stated the Protestant Religion without the help of Gutenbergs Printing Technology.(Spar, 2001) In the last few centuries the affect that technology has had on business and commerce has been increasing and at a more rapid pace, just within the communications area, the pace from Telegraph, to Telephone, to Radio, to Television, to the Internet, ad now Wireless. We are now to a point that the economy is driven, to a great extent, by the technology that underlies it, and the changes to that technology drives more and more of the economic growth. It is, therefore, important to understand not only how technology affects the economy but also how to improve the technology innovation process so that the continued growth of the economy isnt stagnated but encouraged to grow at its fastest reasonable pace. This paper lays out, first, ways in which the economy is and has been affected by technology, second, how technology evolves and is incorporated into businesses and the larger economy, and third, a model for government involvement in this innovation cycle, in hopes that the cycle can run its most efficient and effective course.