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Dissertation Information for Jonathan Douglas Sassi

NAME:
- Jonathan Douglas Sassi

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1996)

ADVISORS:
- Ruth Bloch

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Joyce Oldham Appleby
- Jeffery Alexander

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: To envision a godly society: The public Christianity of the southern New England clergy, 1783-1833

Abstract: This dissertation studies the debate over Christian social ideology, which took place in southern New England during the fifty years following the American Revolution. The region's clergymen tried to connect religion and society through their providential interpretations of corporate experience and prescriptions for the godly community. The presence of competing Protestant denominations and rival political parties insured that the debate would be a contentious one. Drawing upon the evidence of published sermons, orations, and treatises, the dissertation provides a coherent account of a subject which is often split between the Revolutionary and Antebellum eras.

By finding that there were Americans concerned with their corporate destiny, this dissertation belies the overall depiction of the early Republic as the period which witnessed the triumph of liberalism in American culture. Specifically, important segments of the New England ministry retained a commitment to constructing a righteous community and assessing the cosmic meaning of the American experiment. The clergy's corporate ethic had a number of ramifications for United States history. It both fostered and critiqued American identity, contributed to political ideology, and fed into the origins of reform and of a "public sphere" in the early nineteenth century.

The story of how New England ministers sought to construct a Christian social ideology falls into three chronological periods. From the early 1780s until the turn of the century, the established, Congregational ministry aligned church and government in a hierarchical social vision aimed at the creation of a righteous community. These ministers were convinced of the providential direction and worldwide ramifications of the American Revolution. In the second period, from roughly 1799 to 1818, the rise of the Democratic-Republican party forced a reevaluation of the region's public Christianity. Religious dissenters aligned with the Jeffersonians and agitated for disestablishment, while the Congregationalists reinterpreted the place of the United States in providential history and reassessed their alliance with the magistracy. Finally, in period three, during the 1820s and early 1830s, a new, evangelical model of public Christianity emerged, which bridged the old gap between the Orthodox Congregationalists and dissenters.

MPACT Scores for Jonathan Douglas Sassi

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calculated 2009-01-19 20:36:36

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Students under Jonathan Douglas Sassi

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None