The beating drum throughout today's reading is localization, centering religious energy around a community instead of a nation or even a state. The Hatch article made clear for me the intrinsic relationship between democracy and religion during this time period which makes learning about period American Protestantism important to our theme for this semester. Hatch points out several times that during these years the federal government was still a very small institution, and the various churches often preoccupied the minds of Americans who today might be more caught up in politics. As I read about Leland's staunch opposition to establishment and hierarchical organization in religion, I could easily picture him standing in for many of the people today calling for a downsizing of government.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteGreat connection between Leland and contemporary "anti"government folks. Could you push this further to a closer analysis--again--of the Tea Party Movement?
LDL