The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan O. Hatch
(Yale University Press, 1989)

Right from the beginning of The Democratization of American Christianity, Hatch immediately states that "The wave of popular religious movements that broke upon the United States in the half century after independence did more to Christianize American society than anything before or since." (pg. 3). This is the central theme of the book and Hatch does a excellent job of supporting this theme throughout with details how it started, why it started, and the effects on our American society then and now. Hatch argues that the popular religious movements during the first half of the 19th century was responsible for the Christianize of American society and was primarily carried out through the Methodist and Baptist movements in both white and black society When the Revolutionary War ended, the United States experienced unprecedented growth due primarily to a high birth rate in both free and enslaved people. These are the years in which Christianity boomed and was later referred to as the “Second Great Awakening”. Citizen rights and society changes took center stage in the development of a religious America. The American Revolution and the freedom won from it helped to get people to think for themselves and they formulated strong opinions on freedom, equality, and representation. In our American society, children were they migrating to larger cities to find work, We saw a decrease in respect for authority, in tradition, and drunkenness Hatch points out that the expansion of evangelical
Christianity in the early 19th century was a result of ordinary people starting to look after their own priorities rather than the priorities of the nation. In these Christian religious movements, Ordinary people were drawn to and empowered by these movements which accepted their spiritual beliefs rather than dictating them through scripture. Now that the Revolutionary war was over and this new nation lacked direction and it's future was uncertain, Christianity in many cases provided the comfort to families they sought with clear direction and purpose. Hatch went on in the second chapter to speak about the Methodists and Baptist appealed to the common people because they revolted against the idea that a preacher had to be formally educated and trained. This upset many religious leaders like Timothy Dwight (President of Yale) and Lyman Beecher that were offended by illiterate men teaching the work of god. In many ways, this attention brough by Dwight and Beecher made Methodists and Baptist more popular because they were appealing to everyday Americans through clergy that were just as educated as them. One such preacher was Lorenzo Dow who claimed “that no gospel law existed that authorized any man to forbid or put up barriers to stop any man from preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (pg 20). The stance by Dwight and Beecher caused many to feel it was a rights and equality issue for a common man to be a preacher too. As pointed out by Hatch, what is important to understand during this time is that the political parties were set and politics became heated and sometimes violent. Many commoners began to rebel against the elite and slavery. Many citizens had strong opinions about citizenship, religion, political representation, and equality. Everyday Americans were very critical of clergy that took a salary rather than living in poverty like Jesus did, like they did. In the third chapter, Hatch discusses the phenomenon of American camp meetings and how these meetings were the driving force behind the massive growth of the American Methodist movement. The camp meetings practice originated in Britain and was controversial because they involved unlicensed and uneducated ministers who encouraged testimonies by anyone regardless of age or gender. Ultimately British Methodist leaders ended the practice in England but American Methodist ministers launched the practice in America. The ministers recruited in America to lead these camp style meetings were charismatic, passionate, and were very critical of traditional church doctrine and practices. American Methodists continued and further expanded their camp meetings because of its success in attracting new church goers and Francis Asbury, one of the first two American Methodist bishops, described them as fishing with a large net (pg55). This movement was driven by young leaders who in their sermons all were welcome no matter their education or experience to preach. Ordinary American citizens were given control of their religious destiny being encouraged to think for themselves and to oppose the traditional, centralized church. The Methodists, Baptists, and Christians rapidly expanded through the growing nation. Hatch examines the five separate religious movements that became very popular in the young nation in chapter four. These movements were separated into Christians, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, and the black churches. All of these movements had similar styles but all emphasized different theology and they were also structured differently. The Baptists and the Christian group the Disciples were structure to operate democratically while the Mormons and Methodists were strictly controlled from the top of the organization. Elias Smith, another Christian church leader, was the driving force behind the principles that religion should be of, by, and for the people which was very similar to our new government's founding principles. Smith also founded the Herald out of Portland, ME which was the first religious newspaper. Smith used his newspaper to attack opposing views of all other religions including traditional as well as the other religious movements in America. Many other religious leaders follow Smith's lead and developed their own newspapers to criticize other religions. Hatch wrote about other important leaders in the Christian movement besides Smith including James O'Kelly of Virginia, Barton Stone of Kentucky, and Alexander Campbell of Pennsylvania and how they played similar important roles in their geographical areas. As these upstart religious movements happen in different parts of the nation, some of them merged with each other to create bigger more powerful followings. One example of this was in 1809, James O'Kelly and his 20,000 members merged with Elias Smith's Christians. As these religious groups grew larger and larger in the United States Hatch felt that Stone and Campbell's movements grew into major denominations by becoming the same kind or organization the reformers had once stood against. Instead of creating a church free from "traditional theology" with authoritarian control, these new Christian groups advocated their type of similar “traditional theology” and exercised their own authoritarian control over these large groups of followers. While the Methodist movement in America was led by Francis Asbury, he provided a disciplined way of life among young men who were single, poor, and less educated. He believed that the episcopal system was the backbone of the Methodist movement and he wanted to return the
Methodist Church to the apostolic order of the New Testament. In his opinion, Methodists were unique because the organizational structure from bishop to circuit rider was committed to an apostolic order. By 1840, the Methodist movement had developed into a nationally respected denomination. Hatch then looks at John Leland, a very popular and controversial Baptist leader in America during the early years of the nation. Leland was well know for his support of church-state separation, Leland was very influential in petitioning the Virginia legislature on behalf of Thomas Jefferson's bill for religious freedom. Leland was also not afraid to lead his congregation against slavery and led Virginia Baptists in the opposition. Leland the evangelist stood against professional clergy, he supported individual conscience over the old traditional religious systems, and local leadership over a national controlling body. Leland felt that one's conscience must be free from human control so it didn't come between only God and the individual. Hatch notes during the last two decades of his life, Leland urged that Baptist to stay localized and not give in to centralization. Leland is important because he turned a "quest for self-reliance into a godly crusade.". Hatch considered black preachers to be the most glaring examples of the democratization of
American Christianity. Most blacks both free and enslaved were not Christians until after the Revolutionary War and then thousands of blacks joined Baptist and Methodist churches. Hatch gave three reasons why this happened. First the black churches welcomed them as full participants and they openly opposed slavery. Second, blacks were attracted to this movement because it was capable of being understood and practiced by the uneducated. Black preachers built a sense of belonging and community that involved spontaneous chanting and singing. In my opinion, this gave the American Black population a sense of belonging, equality, and hope for the future. The third and last reason was boom of black preachers which grew faster and larger than white preachers. During the growth of the black churches and congregations, black preachers were able to develop their own versions of the gospel and they were a rally point for these developing African-American communities for freedom and equality. The Mormons represent another mass movement which furthered the democratization of American Christianity. Joesph Smith the founder or Mormonism was born into poverty and disliked traditional churches and none of the current denominations either and felt they all preached an false faith. In 1827, Smith claimed to have discovered an instrument which supposedly gave him access to the long-lost story of God's work in America declaring himself to be a profit. Three years later, Smith published his Book of Mormon which told this long-lost story. According to Hatch, the themes of pride, wealth, learning, fine clothing, and oppression of the poor reappear throughout the Book of Mormon as the "principal objects of divine displeasure." The Mormon movement grew because of followers like Kimball Young, grandson of Brigham Young, were eager to follow a “prophet” that talked like a commoner. In chapter five, Hatch explores further how religious print media and music gained popularity and had a effect on the democratization of American Christianity. Before the 19th Century, religious newspapers and periodicals were practically nonexistent. Within a mere 30 years, religious newspapers and periodicals changed the landscape of the religious movement and religious culture which boosted popularity and allow citizens to learn about what each movement had to offer easier than ever before. Also there was a large increase in printing of bibles and the American Tract Society was publishing over a million copies a year. At the heart of the popularity of the American Christianity movements was folk music. The music reached new heights of popularity due to its lively, up lifting music of hope and the gospel. Music was particularly popular amongst the black churches because it became one of the few forms of self expression for those that were enslaved. As Hatch summarizes, the rise in religious print media, the use of uneducated, “common man” preachers, and the popularity of folk music helped the movements get there message out to the public. At the heart of this boom in religiousness was the profound conviction of all the movements that the church and theological views were going to be based on citizens' common sense and not the ideology embraced on the past from the religious elite. That this new movement, this populist movement, would be measured by its public acceptance and how the church based its sermons, its structure. This helped these new churches quickly gain new members, spread throughout the America and the new territory, and to create unity. The sixth chapter explores the profound commitment of American churches to their audience. Leaders such as Alexander Campbell considered people's common sense to be more reliable, even in theology, than the judgment of the educated elite. Faith in public opinion became the new arbiter of truth. Theology was now measured by its level of acceptance in the religious marketplace. Characterized by anti-clericalism, these leaders insisted that all distinctions between laity and clergy be abolished. They strongly believed that the removal of these distinctions would restore peace, harmony, and vitality to the Christian church. Each of these movement claimed to be the "heaven-sent solution to the riddle of sectarianism." In their minds, these leaders were restoring the apostolic order of the early church. In my opinion, they were ushering in a era of democracy into the church. Just as there fore-fathers lead a revolution against England to change to democratic government, these new religious leaders, like Elias Smith, Lorenzo Dow, Francis Ashbury, and Joesph Smith, were leading a revolution against the Church of England to change to a democratic for of Christianity. Ultimately these new churches gave many Americans a purpose and direction they needed at a time when they didn’t have one any longer since we were no longer fighting for our freedom. By the mid 19th century, Hatch talks about how these religious movements became very wealthy and made many investment into their churches to remodel them, add organs, build sanctuaries, and began to formally educate their ministers. Also members of these churches rise in the political ranks and they were elected to seats in the state and federal levels. Through the reinvestment of the churches wealth they became respectable and important to the success of their communities. The wealth was used to build schools throughout America which further strengthened their place in society. Along the same time came a bit of a backlash against the religious movements even with some founding members. Many felt that democracy had gone too far in the church and they had to bring discipline to their faiths. Also it needed to prevent other self-made leaders from starting new movements that would gain power and wealth away from the church. This led to additional populist religious movements. In the final chapter, Hatch talks about how these populist movements continued to develop in America through the years and how Americans are more religious than any other western industrialized society. Hatch spoke about three features of our current American religious society, prominence of populist religious leaders, ordinary peoples passion for religion, and how these religious leaders play important roles in education, politics, and public opinion. Some examples of this are Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, Joel Olsten, and Pat Robertson. Another point is even more modern times democratic religious movements are still based on the idea of revolting against elitism. I enjoyed reading Hatch's book and found that the Democratization of American Christianity made sound points on how and why these Christian movements came about in post revolutionary America and how they even still continue today. It also re-enforced my thoughts that it came at a time when Americans were still interested in fighting British control but the war was over. Churches that were modeled after English churches became easy targets. The movement leaders quickly and easily tapped into the passion for democracy and pointed it at the current colonial churches. As I have learned from other books, I felt that Hatch could have spent more time discussing how the current economic and social conditions of society help quickly spread American Christianity. The movement to a matriarchal leadership within the family structure, children leaving home in vast numbers to work in cities or to farm new land, class sturcture, and also income and educational gap between the upper and lower class. Mothers embracing and moving their families towards Christianity in hopes of instilling values and morals drove this movement as well.