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