John Calvin's American Legacy

Zusatztext Indispensable volume of essays. Informationen zum Autor Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, and Thomas H. Lake Scholar in Religion and Philanthropy, Indiana University-Purdue University Klappentext John Calvin's American Legacy explores the influence of Calvin and his heirs on American life, highlighting how the Calvinist tradition is woven into the fabric of American society, theology, and letters. From colonial economics to twenty-first-century fiction, the Calvinist imprint is unmistakable. This work helps readers comprehend that imprint in all its contextualized richness. Zusammenfassung John Calvin's American Legacy explores the ways Calvin and the Calvinist tradition have influenced American life. Though there are books that trace the role Calvin and Calvinism have played in the national narrative, they tend to focus, as books, on particular topics and time periods. This work, divided into three sections, is the first to present studies that, taken together, represent the breadth of Calvinism's impact in the United States. In addition, each section moves chronologically, ranging from colonial times to the twenty-first century. After a brief introduction focused on the life of Calvin and some of the problems involved in how he is viewed and studied, the volume moves into the first section - "Calvin, Calvinism, and American Society " - which looks at the economics of the Colonial period, Calvin and the American identity, and the evidence for Calvin's influence on American democracy. The book's second section examines theology, addressing the relationship between Jonathan Edwards's church practice and Calvin's, the Calvinist theological tradition in the nineteenth century, how Calvin came to be understood in the historiography of Williston Walker and Perry Miller, and Calvin's influence on some of the theologies of the twentieth century. The third section, ¨John Calvin, Calvinism, and American Letters,¨ looks at Calvinism's influence on such writers as Samson Occom, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Max Weber, Mark Twain, and John Updike. Altogether, this volume demonstrates the wide-ranging impact of Calvin's thinking throughout American history and society....

Indispensable volume of essays.

Auteur
Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, and Thomas H. Lake Scholar in Religion and Philanthropy, Indiana University-Purdue University

Texte du rabat

John Calvin's American Legacy explores the influence of Calvin and his heirs on American life, highlighting how the Calvinist tradition is woven into the fabric of American society, theology, and letters. From colonial economics to twenty-first-century fiction, the Calvinist imprint is unmistakable. This work helps readers comprehend that imprint in all its contextualized richness.

Résumé
John Calvin's American Legacy explores the ways Calvin and the Calvinist tradition have influenced American life. Though there are books that trace the role Calvin and Calvinism have played in the national narrative, they tend to focus, as books, on particular topics and time periods. This work, divided into three sections, is the first to present studies that, taken together, represent the breadth of Calvinism's impact in the United States. In addition, each section moves chronologically, ranging from colonial times to the twenty-first century. After a brief introduction focused on the life of Calvin and some of the problems involved in how he is viewed and studied, the volume moves into the first section - "Calvin, Calvinism, and American Society " - which looks at the economics of the Colonial period, Calvin and the American identity, and the evidence for Calvin's influence on American democracy. The book's second section examines theology, addressing the relationship between Jonathan Edwards's church practice and Calvin's, the Calvinist theological tradition in the nineteenth century, how Calvin came to be understood in the historiography of Williston Walker and Perry Miller, and Calvin's influence on some of the theologies of the twentieth century. The third section, ¨John Calvin, Calvinism, and American Letters,¨ looks at Calvinism's influence on such writers as Samson Occom, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Max Weber, Mark Twain, and John Updike. Altogether, this volume demonstrates the wide-ranging impact of Calvin's thinking throughout American history and society.

Contenu

INTRODUCTION, BY THOMAS J. DAVIS; SECTION I JOHN CALVIN, CALVINISM, AND AMERICAN SOCIETY; 1. Calvin and the Social Order in Early America: Moral Ideals and Transatlantic Empire, by Mark Valeri; 2. Calvinism and American National Identity, by David Little; 3. Implausible: Calvinism and American Politics, by D. G. Hart; SECTION II JOHN CALVIN, CALVINISM, AND AMERICAN THEOLOGY; 4. Practical Ecclesiology in John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards, by Amy Plantinga Pauw; 5. "Falling Away from the General Faith of the Reformation"? The Contest over Calvinism in Nineteenth-Century America, by Douglas A. Sweeney; 6. Calvin and Calvinism within Congregational and Unitarian Discourse in Nineteenth-Century America, by David D. Hall; 7. Whose Calvin, Which Calvinism? John Calvin and the Development of Twentieth-Century American Theology, by Stephen D. Crocco; SECTION III JOHN CALVIN, CALVINISM, AND AMERICAN LETTERS; 8. "Strange Providence": Indigenist Calvinism in the Writings of Mohegan Minister Samson Occom (1723-1792), by Denise T. Askin; 9. Geneva's Crystalline Clarity: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Max Weber on Calvinism and the American Character, by Peter J. Thuesen; 10. "Jonathan Edwards, Calvin, Baxter & Co.": Mark Twain and the Comedy of Calvinism, by Joe B. Fulton; 11. Cold Comforts: John Updike, Protestant Thought and the Semantics of Paradox, by Kyle A. Pasewark; CONCLUSION JOHN CALVIN AT "HOME" IN AMERICAN CULTURE