History 422
Topics in American Intellectual and Cultural History:
Early American Religious Cultures


Prof. Erik Seeman
Spring 2010                          
Th 1:00-3:40,  Baldy 120

Park 534, 645-5648                 
seeman@buffalo.edu                       
Office hours:  T 1-3


Goals:  Early American religion was not simply about the Puritans.  From the beginning, America was home to a stunning array of religious cultures, some of which are familiar to us today, others of which seem unusual indeed.  Examining groups like the Immortalists, who believed they would never die, and Spiritualists, who believed they could communicate with the dead, this class will ask students to come to terms with the diversity that has always been a hallmark of American religious life.  In this class we will seek to answer questions that are increasingly relevant today:  is it possible to reconcile fervent religious belief with tolerance?  what were the original intentions of the framers of the First Amendment?  what is it about religion that has always attracted more women than men?  what are the origins of the distinctive cadences of African-American Christianity?  

Assignments:  There are several assignments required of students in addition to attending class and participating in discussion:  three four-page papers and a ten-page take-home final exam.

UB Learns:   Go to UB Learns for the syllabus, information about assignments, and study questions.

Grading:  Note that because participation in discussion is very important, it will count for 40% of your final grade.  If you miss three or more class sessions with unexcused absences, you will receive an F for class participation.

    Class participation:       40%
    Four-page papers:        10% each
    Final paper:                  30%


Readings:  The following books may be purchased at the UB Bookstore.  They will also be available on reserve at the Undergraduate Library, Capen Hall.  Any readings not found in these books are available through UB’s online course reserve system.

Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith:  Christianizing the American People (Cambridge, Mass., 1990)

James Axtell, The Invasion Within:  The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (New York, 1985)

Michael P. Winship, The Times and Trials of Anne Hutchinson:  Puritans Divided (Lawrence, Kan., 2005)

Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening:  The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America (New Haven, 2007)

Sylvia R. Frey and Betty Wood, Come Shouting to Zion:  African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830 (Chapel Hill, 1998)


Jan. 14:  Introduction


Jan. 21:  Indians

Readings:  Axtell, 3-19

Karen Ordahl Kupperman, “The Names of God,” in Indians and English:  Facing Off in Early America (Ithaca, 2000), 110-41

Roger Williams, “Of Religion,” in A Key Into the Language of America (London, 1643), 122-40


Jan. 28:  Europe

Readings:  Butler, 1-36

Eamon Duffy, “The Impact of Reform:  Parishes,” in The Stripping of the Altars:  Traditional Religion in England, c.1400-c.1580 (New Haven, 1992), 478-503

Diarmaid MacCulloch, “The New Europe Defined,” in Reformation:  Europe’s House Divided, 1490-1700 (New York, 2003), 317-40, 382-93


Feb. 4:  French Missionaries

Readings:  Axtell, 23-127

Allan Greer, ed., The Jesuit Relations:  Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America (Boston, 2000), 41-50, 61-69


Feb. 11:  Puritan Missionaries

Readings:  Axtell, 131-333

Four-page paper due in class


Feb. 18:  Seventeenth-Century New England

Readings:  Butler, 37-66

Winship, all


Feb. 25:  Witchcraft and Magic

Readings:  Butler, 67-97

David D. Hall, ed., “The Salem Witch-hunt,” in Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England(Boston, 1991), 280-314


Mar. 4:  Revivalism 1

Readings:  Butler, 98-128

Kidd, xiii-155


Mar. 18:  Revivalism 2

Readings:  Butler, 164-93

Kidd, 156-324

Four-page paper due in class


Mar. 25:  Afro-Christianity 1

Readings:  Butler, 129-63

Frey and Wood, xi-79


Apr. 1:  Afro-Christianity 2

Readings:  Frey and Wood, 80-213

Richard S. Newman, “A Liberating Theology,” in Freedom’s Prophet:  Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers (New York, 2008), 158-82


Apr. 8:  Nineteenth-Century Ferment

Readings:  Butler, 225-95

Nathan Hatch, “The Right to Think for Oneself,” in The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven, 1989), 162-89


Apr. 15:  Female Preachers

Readings:  Susan Juster, “Women of Revelation,” in Doomsayers:  Anglo-American Prophecy in the Age of Revolution (Philadelphia, 2003), 216-59

Jarena Lee, “The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee,” in Sisters of the Spirit, ed. William L. Andrews (Bloomington, Ind., 1986), 25-48

Catherine A. Brekus, “Suffer Not a Woman To Teach,” in Strangers and Pilgrims:  Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845 (Chapel Hill, 1998), 267-306


Apr. 22:  Antebellum Spiritual Hothouse

Readings:  Ann Taves, “Shouting Methodists,” in Fits, Trances, and Visions:  Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James (Princeton, 1999), 76-117

Molly McGarry, “Mourning, Media, and Cultural Politics,” in Ghosts of Futures Past:  Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America (Berkeley, 2008), 17-65

John L. Brooke, “Secret Combinations and Slippery Treasures,” in The Refiner’s Fire:  The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844 (New York, 1994), 149-83

Four-page paper due in class


Apr. 29:  Ten-page take-home final due by noon