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UNDER THE COPE OF HEAVEN UPDATED ED: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America
In this pathbreaking study, Patricia Bonomi argues that religion was as instrumental as either politics or the economy in shaping early American life and values. Looking at the middle and southern colonies as well as at Puritan New England, Bonomi finds an abundance of religious vitality through the colonial years among clergy and churchgoers of diverse religious background. The book also explores the tightening relationship between religion and politics and illuminates the vital role religion played in the American Revolution. A perennial backlist title first published in 1986, this updated edition includes a new preface on research in the field on African Americans, Indians, women, the Great Awakening, and Atlantic history and how these impact her interpretations.
325 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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September 27, 2014
In the preface to the 1986 edition of Under the Cope of Heaven, Patricia Bonomi discusses a conversation she had with Richard Hofstadter. Bonomi was arguing that ethnic identities strongly influenced political behavior among colonists. Hofstadter’s counterpoint formed the basis of Under the Cope of Heaven: “He suggested instead that if there was a single determinant of the colonists’ political responses more important than any other, it might have been religion” (vi). In this book, Bonomi fleshes out this insight by putting religion and religious institutions at the center of colonial political, social, and intellectual life. She successfully uncovers a “far more vital religious culture” than suggested by declension narratives and persuasively gives religion a larger role in creating the American Revolution than historians who have focused on more secular causes.
Bonomi devotes the first part of this book to establishing the centrality of religion in colonial life and countering the declension argument that the 18th Century was a period of secularization and decline for colonial religion. She establishes that the church was the center of religious, political, and social life in most colonial towns. The people themselves were hungry for religion, as the popularity of itinerant preachers serving a dispersed population demonstrates. In general, Bonomi shows that ecclesiastical authorities were weaker in the colonies because of the dispersed population and the range of options available to most colonists, which the author calls a “free market for theistic beliefs and practices” (81).
The key to Bonomi’s case against the declension narrative is her inversion of perspective on colonial religion. High intellectual histories that take a top-down view of society naturally gravitate towards declension because religious elites like Puritan or Anglican leaders tended to have lofty visions of colonial utopias that almost inevitably failed to materialize in the real world. Moreover, these authorities faced numerous challenges from a diverse and fractious population, including the revivals of the Great Awakening. They viewed these challenges as signs of decline and rampant sinfulness, and their lamentations then influenced historiographical declension arguments. Bonomi helps us see beyond these sources by approaching colonial religion from a popular perspective. From this viewpoint, she shows that even though ordinary people and some elites increasingly challenged religious authorities, religious practice and the centrality of religion to colonial life did not decline. Rather, there was more vitality, new variations such as Quakerism, and greater proliferation of religion to the frontier population.
Bonomi uses the second part of her book to connect colonial religion more closely to the Revolution than most historians would. It may be difficult modern historians to reconcile Enlightenment rationalism with religious piety, especially the evangelicalism of the Great Awakening. This bias may explain why the historiography of the causes of the American Revolution has focused more on “secular” Enlightenment ideas than religion. Bonomi skillfully avoid such a presentist bias in arguing that colonists held religious and Enlightenment ideals simultaneously and generally without tension. This mélange of ideas was then crucial in forming a mentality and a set of social structures that were conducive to challenging British authority.
Bonomi contends that the Great Awakening and colonial religion helped cause the American Revolution in several ways. The process of challenging “Old Light” religious authorities and forming independent churches eroded the traditional emphasis on “deference and social order” by elevating the individual’s conscience (152). This process created habits of thought and models of community action and gave the colonists a “practice model” for challenging British authority (153).
Moreover, both the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening combined to make religious rationalists out of many colonists. They believed that God had given humanity the unique gift of reason, which enabled them to observe the world and the Bible and discover natural laws, including ideas such as the natural rights of man and the righteousness of resisting tyranny. These activists, including many of the most prominent “Founders,” believed that the individual owed obedience to higher laws above the dictates of temporal political and religious authorities. Finally, in a more practical sense, churches were useful social networks for rallying and disseminating revolutionary views. Bonomi thus shows that when the political crises of 1760’s and 1770’s erupted, the colonists’ religious views and institutions had practically and ideologically prepared them to resist British encroachment upon their rights and welfare.
The key concept that makes Bonomi’s attempt to put religion in the center of colonial history so convincing is the inseparability of religion from all aspects of colonial life. Religion was so intricately intertwined with colonial life that no historian can examine the social, political, gender, and intellectual history of the colonies without studying religious thought and practice. All scholars of the colonial period and the Revolution would benefit from her concise and convincing argument.
Bonomi devotes the first part of this book to establishing the centrality of religion in colonial life and countering the declension argument that the 18th Century was a period of secularization and decline for colonial religion. She establishes that the church was the center of religious, political, and social life in most colonial towns. The people themselves were hungry for religion, as the popularity of itinerant preachers serving a dispersed population demonstrates. In general, Bonomi shows that ecclesiastical authorities were weaker in the colonies because of the dispersed population and the range of options available to most colonists, which the author calls a “free market for theistic beliefs and practices” (81).
The key to Bonomi’s case against the declension narrative is her inversion of perspective on colonial religion. High intellectual histories that take a top-down view of society naturally gravitate towards declension because religious elites like Puritan or Anglican leaders tended to have lofty visions of colonial utopias that almost inevitably failed to materialize in the real world. Moreover, these authorities faced numerous challenges from a diverse and fractious population, including the revivals of the Great Awakening. They viewed these challenges as signs of decline and rampant sinfulness, and their lamentations then influenced historiographical declension arguments. Bonomi helps us see beyond these sources by approaching colonial religion from a popular perspective. From this viewpoint, she shows that even though ordinary people and some elites increasingly challenged religious authorities, religious practice and the centrality of religion to colonial life did not decline. Rather, there was more vitality, new variations such as Quakerism, and greater proliferation of religion to the frontier population.
Bonomi uses the second part of her book to connect colonial religion more closely to the Revolution than most historians would. It may be difficult modern historians to reconcile Enlightenment rationalism with religious piety, especially the evangelicalism of the Great Awakening. This bias may explain why the historiography of the causes of the American Revolution has focused more on “secular” Enlightenment ideas than religion. Bonomi skillfully avoid such a presentist bias in arguing that colonists held religious and Enlightenment ideals simultaneously and generally without tension. This mélange of ideas was then crucial in forming a mentality and a set of social structures that were conducive to challenging British authority.
Bonomi contends that the Great Awakening and colonial religion helped cause the American Revolution in several ways. The process of challenging “Old Light” religious authorities and forming independent churches eroded the traditional emphasis on “deference and social order” by elevating the individual’s conscience (152). This process created habits of thought and models of community action and gave the colonists a “practice model” for challenging British authority (153).
Moreover, both the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening combined to make religious rationalists out of many colonists. They believed that God had given humanity the unique gift of reason, which enabled them to observe the world and the Bible and discover natural laws, including ideas such as the natural rights of man and the righteousness of resisting tyranny. These activists, including many of the most prominent “Founders,” believed that the individual owed obedience to higher laws above the dictates of temporal political and religious authorities. Finally, in a more practical sense, churches were useful social networks for rallying and disseminating revolutionary views. Bonomi thus shows that when the political crises of 1760’s and 1770’s erupted, the colonists’ religious views and institutions had practically and ideologically prepared them to resist British encroachment upon their rights and welfare.
The key concept that makes Bonomi’s attempt to put religion in the center of colonial history so convincing is the inseparability of religion from all aspects of colonial life. Religion was so intricately intertwined with colonial life that no historian can examine the social, political, gender, and intellectual history of the colonies without studying religious thought and practice. All scholars of the colonial period and the Revolution would benefit from her concise and convincing argument.
January 14, 2018
This is an abbreviated version of my review. The full version can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/work/3705...
The reviews of this book all point to Bonomi's position on several fundamental questions. To what extent was religion in decline in the colonies starting in the late 17thC? Was there a "Great Awakening" in the 1730s-40s, and if so did this serve as the anteroom for the Revolution? As the reviewers all point out, Bonomi clearly does not believe that colonial religion was in decline starting in the late !7th Century, indeed she points out that declension only works if we narrow our scope to New England -- and even there it is not the whole story. She attempts to tell us the whole story by examining not just New England, but also the Middle and Southern Colonies. As Philip F. Gura points out in his review of the book, she comes down on the side of Alan Heimert (Religion and the American Mind from the Great Awakening to the Revolution) in his debate with Bernard Bailyn ("religion and Revolution: Three Biographical Studies" Perspectives in American History IV (1970), 85-169) over the linkages between evangelical religion and the Revolution. Bonomi sides with Heimert, though perhaps more subtly. The same could be said, so Gura, of a number of other recent studies -- Harry S. Stout (The New England Soul, 1986), Ruth H. Bloch (Visionary Republic, 1985) and Nathan O. Hatch (The Sacred Cause of Liberty, 1977).
Bonomi begins the book in her Preface by tracing her interest in the role of religion in American society to a conversation she had with Richard Hofstadter. As Hofstadter pointed out, religious loyalties shaped political debate -- yet the paradox existed that most historians agreed that church attendance was heading downward from the early 18th C to the Revolution. Bonomi finds the answer in gong beyond theological debates and focusing on popular expressions of religion in the colonies.
Chapter 1: The Religious Prospect
Bonomi opens chapter 1 by pointing to the predominance of church steeples on the horizons of American cities in 1760. Noting the importance of this landscape transformation from earlier times, she points to the importance of landscape sacralization (Butler). In addition, she points out that religion permeated colonial society in many other ways. Books and pamphlets with religious themes were the most popular literature and the greatest entertainment of the day was a sermon. Even at public hangings, it was the sermon that people remembered.
The narrative of declension adopted by historians could be read another way. Perhaps, she suggests, in a world where it was difficult to get a minister for your church and working ministers were stretched very thin, it was in the interest of the Puritan divines to point to decline and urge the support of more ministers? But it is not even necessary to impute such motives to Cotton Mather in order to rectify the image of religious decline he painted (and he may even have been right in some sense about New England). By looking at the middle and southern colonies, she argues, we get a more complete picture. To the New England Congregationalists, Bonomi adds the Pennsylvania Quakers, pietistic sects, Lutherans, Reformed and Presbyterians. None of which evidenced any signs of declension. She notes the importance of immigration patterns in the 18th C in making this a vital religious field. Based on this vitality, she points to a connection between the popular practice of religion and the American Revolution. She goes so far as to suggest the use of religious networks as "cells" of Revolution. And locates the origin of the principle of religious toleration in the stresses and strains of early American religious history.
Part I: Religion and Society
Chapter 2: The New Heavens and the New Earth
The "forlorne" State of Religion in early Virginia resulted from warfare between Indians and settlers, economic instability and political disruption. Despite the best stated intentions to spread Anglican faith, the Virginia Company did not provide a vital religious life for its young, single, male colonists. The rapid ascent of "new wealth" did nothing to provide incentive for religious institutionalization. Even the Puritan establishment in New England faced initial challenges, with too few ministers to serve the burgeoning settlements beyond Boston. In this field of religious disarray, dissent was rife. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson found themselves able to attract a substantial following precisely because of the disarray in the Puritan establishment. As they went off to settle Providence and Portsmouth, RI they gave new energy to the impulse for religious toleration.
A Grudging Toleration
Charles I granted a colonial charter to his fellow Catholic Cecilius Calvert to settle Maryland in 1632. Yet the number of Catholics in the colony was always overwhelmed by Protestants. Even before the English Civil War forced the Catholic proprietors from the colony, Protestants outnumbered Catholics. The "Act Concerning Religion" grew out of a desire of the Catholics of Maryland to protect themselves and their faith. The Growth of Toleration was the direct result of contest and conflict, not of any high minded principles. With the deposition of James II by William and Mary, Catholic proprietorship was at an end and the Anglican Church was established in Maryland. A similar dynamic of religious diversity and contest forced Stuyvesant to adopt a policy of toleration in New Netherlands. Jews, Lutherans Quakers all served the economic interests of the Dutch West India Company. Toleration was not an idealistic, but rather a practical, maneuver on the company's behalf. The story of Quakers in Massachusetts also helps us understand the pragmatic roots of religious toleration. Quakers turned themselves into martyrs by refusing to submit to Puritan dictates. Whipping nursing mothers and hanging other Quakers, the Puritan fathers felt besieged and increasingly had to justify their actions to the public.
In 1660 when Charles II was returned to the throne, the Restoration Colonies were forced to accept a policy of toleration of dissent because Anglicans were not strong enough in the colonies to force their faith on all. Religious Liberty on Principle only developed in Rhode Island under the leadership of Roger Williams, and amongst the Quakers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Under Roger Williams' leadership in the 1640s, the colony of Rhode Island took a principled stand for religious toleration, even affording Quakers the free exercise of their religion. The Quakers of the Jerseys and Pennsylvania were also moved on principle to afford religious liberty even to Catholics!
Chapter 3: The Clergy
Study of the clergy in colonial America has suffered from fragmentary study and neglect that has relegated it to church historians. Bonomi seeks to understand the lot of the clergy by studying a cross section that allows the reader to get a broader overview. Beginning by reminding us of the shock they must have encountered in coming to the new world, she recounts a tale of slow institutionalization of Anglican, Congregational, Dutch Reformed and Quaker clergy in a first generation of the 17th C and the addition of a new wave of clergy in the 18th C in the form of Presbyterian, Lutheran and German Reformed Churches. As the communities became more settled over the period in question, the increasing professionalization of the clergy through the founding of denominational institutions lead to their increase preeminence over the laity. But that was not always or universally so. To show this, she covers the clergy in three denominations: Anglican, Congregationalist and the German Reformed Church.
The first clergy to receive Bonomi's attention are the Anglicans in the colonial south, particularly in Virginia. There she sees an interplay between the growing planter elite, who consolidated their power in the 1680s after the putting down of Bacon's Rebellion. These elites sought to constrain the power of the Anglican clergy, as they represented the power of London. Hence the local elites resisted the establishment of a Bishop in America, which the clergy felt would have strengthened their position. Instead of a Bishop, London sent a Commissary, Rev. James Blair. Blair served a long tenure and worked closely with the planter aristocracy to establish the Anglican church, a tenure which saw disputations wide and far on the topic of who appointed the rectors, house of burgesses or the governor. The governor eventually won (1748).
The Colonial Anglican Clergy suffer from a bad reputation as a result of their contest with the aristocratic planter. Like Maryland, the clergy of Virginia received no support from the society for the propagation of the gospel in London (SPG), as they were both established Anglican colonies. "The precariousness of their Livings" arose from the fact that they relied upon support from the colonial government, which put them at odds with the local elites who resented taxes to support the clergy from the very start. In other colonies the SPG and other London Anglican agencies supported the work of the clergy. Their lot was far from secure in the sea of diverse religious establishments, beliefs and constituencies.
The Anglican Rector's daily rounds in the New World were far different than the Old. With scattered parishioners in geographically large parishes, the rector was essentially an itinerate and was forced to "make house calls" for weddings, baptisms, funerals, etc. High mortality and frontier population growth presented the challenge of serving the growing flock, least they fall into the hands of Dissenters for lack of Anglican ministers. Another frontier challenge was dealing with the impact of warfare with Indians. Yet the challenged Anglican clergy rose to the occasion as the church grew impressively in America, such that at there were more than 300 Anglican churches in the colonies by 1750.
Congregational Clergymen were under pressure to make way for dissenters after the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Charter in 1684. But they had the support of the local government apparatus to "throw sand" in the machinery of reform. Provincial and local officials assiduously resisted efforts to provide tax exemptions to dissenting churches (here Anglican Church). In contrast to the localism that protected congregationalism in MA, in Connecticut the Say brook Platform called together the ministers of that colony to institute colony-wide reforms that protected the established church from encroachments by dissenters.
The clergy in New England enjoyed significant advantages over their fellows elsewhere. Bonomi points to the growth of institutions of higher learning that produced a healthy supply of ministers. The shortages faced on the frontier of Western MA and Maine/VT/NH were more the result of clergy seeking better parishes in the established/settled areas. Despite wrangling over pay rates, the Congregational clergy seemed to have prospered in the "clean air" of New England.
The middle colonies were the locus of the greatest diversity in ethnic and religious terms, conventionally seen as a source of religious lassitude and viewed by Bonomi as a well spring for renewal in the German ethnic population. Seeking to avoid the contamination of the sects, the German communities formed their own barriers to the diversity around them by relying upon the work of pious lay people. The German Church Clergy of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches were more likely to be schoolmasters or pious lay people. In the Jerseys, New York and Pennsylvania Lutherans has no choice but to rely upon lay leaders. Because settlements did without ordained clergy for a good deal of the early years, wandering charlatans were a clear danger. Stories of these folk lead to the low estimate of the character of the German clergy. When they did arrive, ordained ministers were not always welcomed with open arms. Having to prove their authenticity, they were immediately put on the defensive. Some, like Henry Muhlenberg, stayed. Others returned to Germany in disgust. Bonomi sees this diversity in the Middle Colonies as a source of strength, as it fostered the rise of volunteerism which would come to be a respected American value in the 19th C.
Chapter 4: The Churchgoers
Bonomi starts with a "word about numbers" to put in perspective the statistics for church-going that have long buttressed the arguments in support of declining religious adherence. The church as center of community life looms large in colonial America, but the actual numbers of who belonged to the churches may distort real participation. Pointing to stringent requirements for full church membership in New England, as well as the tribalism that excluded newcomers, she sees even the New England numbers typically marshaled to support the declension thesis as misleading. Looking beyond the settled communities of New England, SPG reports from the growing frontier of the South confirmed that though people held Christian beliefs they may not have had the opportunity to attend formal services. In the middle colonies, the population explosion led the denominations to rely heavily upon itinerancy, further distorting the reliability of purely spastically tabulated formulations.
Turing to an analysis of churchgoing and social rank. Bonomi finds it hard to make direct correlations between church membership and wealth. The COE attracted members from all social strata in the south, even though dominated by the planter aristocracy. In the North, Congregational churches were not the exclusive domain of the wealthy. Things become even more mixed when looking at economic correlations in the middle colonies, where Quakers were mostly dominant. Instead of talking of one religion or another being the province of a particular social stratum, she finds it more helpful to talk of a religion's hegemony in a region. Dissenters in the three regions were not just poorer, which in some cases they were not, rather they were marginalized from the levers of power. Rising to challenge a hegemonic religious power, they had more than pure economic motivations.
Anglicanism in Virginia was a "Gentleman's Religion." Believing in the importance of good works and the primacy of outward religious observance for maintaining social order, planters such as William Byrd II found solace in their religion. George Washington was a faithful Anglican and also saw the importance of religious worship in maintaining a good society. As time wore on, the gentlemen's propensity for rationalism became more pronounced and sermons became more compact and emotionalism receded even further into the background. The contrast between the 2 hour sermons of the Boston Congregationalists and the Richmond 20 minute sermon is clearly related to this dynamic. Yet rationalism also made headway in New England and in the Middle colonies. Where Virginia had its rationalist Thomas Jefferson, so Massachusetts had its John Adams and Philadelphia its Benjamin Franklin. The class issue is perhaps less important, however, for the broader population than the gender one at this time. Increasingly, churchgoing was becoming a social and political event for colonial males, as females were increasingly assuming responsibility for the spiritual well being of their families.
In the mid-18th C, women increasingly assumed the role of religious education of their children. As "Daughters of Zion," women of all social strata found themselves empowered to act on a wider stage. In addition to providing for the religious instruction of their children, society matrons exercised considerable power over who would be selected as minister and other matters of church politics. Their writings on spiritual matters were even taken seriously enough to be included in sermons delivered by men. Quakers were particularly open to the ministry of women, and several of them became martyrs to the cause (Mary Dyer in Boston). Ranging from the preaching of the Congregationalist Sarah Haggar Osborne in Newport, RI to the female administered cloister of the Ephrata in Pennsylvania, women found religion a way to lead rather than merely follow.
The rising role of women in religion is often linked to the feminization of religion in the 18th C. The classic narrative links increasing secularization to this process, and this is not far from the argument made by Cotton Mather, who observed that there were "more Godly women than men" in his congregation in 1759. Mather and others took an experiential/essentialist view that linked women's experience in childbirth to greater piety. Historians since then have argued that men were distracted by commercial pursuits, but Bonomi takes issue with this. Tracing male church participation throughout the colonies she concludes that it was the professionalization of the ministry that forced men out. As lay leaders were replaced by ordained clergy they saw less reason for their participation. Though all denominations provided for the education of the young in matters religious, the full participation in church activities was often delayed until people were in their 20s. In a society where 25 was middle aged, this was a significant social factor. The opposite was true of the aged. The elderly were believed to be particularly religious and great respect was accorded to them in churches as a result.
What of the various groups outside of the middling sorts and the well to do? Blacks, Indians and Indentured Servants were all targets of church efforts at conversion to greater or lesser degrees. In the South, as the black slave population grew, masters became increasingly wary of the potentially destabilizing effects of slave conversion. Tensions arose between SPG ministers and the planter elite over this dynamic. Blacks made up only a very small portion of congregations, north and south. Native Americans, in general, proved relatively immune to religious appeals. Despite efforts to bring some of the indentured servants and poor into religious communities, for much of the 18th C most remained outside the embrace of the denominations.
For a time, the religious revivals referred to collectively as the Great Awakening (17303-1740s) brought more men and young people into the Christian fold and enlarged church membership for a time to include the marginalized poor, Indians and blacks (slave and free). Bonomi argues that blacks were especially receptive to the message of revival, taking quickly to the evangelical ministry in song and even shaming their masters to attend church (here the story of Robert Carter's oldest slave Dadda Gumby). She sees the roots of African-American Christianity in this revival religious upsurge. Perhaps the most important part of the revival, however, was the fact that it brought more ministers into the field to serve the increasing numbers of remote frontier settlements. The overall impact, at a macro level, was then to increase the already growing Christianization (to borrow a phrase from Butler) of the colonies.
The reviews of this book all point to Bonomi's position on several fundamental questions. To what extent was religion in decline in the colonies starting in the late 17thC? Was there a "Great Awakening" in the 1730s-40s, and if so did this serve as the anteroom for the Revolution? As the reviewers all point out, Bonomi clearly does not believe that colonial religion was in decline starting in the late !7th Century, indeed she points out that declension only works if we narrow our scope to New England -- and even there it is not the whole story. She attempts to tell us the whole story by examining not just New England, but also the Middle and Southern Colonies. As Philip F. Gura points out in his review of the book, she comes down on the side of Alan Heimert (Religion and the American Mind from the Great Awakening to the Revolution) in his debate with Bernard Bailyn ("religion and Revolution: Three Biographical Studies" Perspectives in American History IV (1970), 85-169) over the linkages between evangelical religion and the Revolution. Bonomi sides with Heimert, though perhaps more subtly. The same could be said, so Gura, of a number of other recent studies -- Harry S. Stout (The New England Soul, 1986), Ruth H. Bloch (Visionary Republic, 1985) and Nathan O. Hatch (The Sacred Cause of Liberty, 1977).
Bonomi begins the book in her Preface by tracing her interest in the role of religion in American society to a conversation she had with Richard Hofstadter. As Hofstadter pointed out, religious loyalties shaped political debate -- yet the paradox existed that most historians agreed that church attendance was heading downward from the early 18th C to the Revolution. Bonomi finds the answer in gong beyond theological debates and focusing on popular expressions of religion in the colonies.
Chapter 1: The Religious Prospect
Bonomi opens chapter 1 by pointing to the predominance of church steeples on the horizons of American cities in 1760. Noting the importance of this landscape transformation from earlier times, she points to the importance of landscape sacralization (Butler). In addition, she points out that religion permeated colonial society in many other ways. Books and pamphlets with religious themes were the most popular literature and the greatest entertainment of the day was a sermon. Even at public hangings, it was the sermon that people remembered.
The narrative of declension adopted by historians could be read another way. Perhaps, she suggests, in a world where it was difficult to get a minister for your church and working ministers were stretched very thin, it was in the interest of the Puritan divines to point to decline and urge the support of more ministers? But it is not even necessary to impute such motives to Cotton Mather in order to rectify the image of religious decline he painted (and he may even have been right in some sense about New England). By looking at the middle and southern colonies, she argues, we get a more complete picture. To the New England Congregationalists, Bonomi adds the Pennsylvania Quakers, pietistic sects, Lutherans, Reformed and Presbyterians. None of which evidenced any signs of declension. She notes the importance of immigration patterns in the 18th C in making this a vital religious field. Based on this vitality, she points to a connection between the popular practice of religion and the American Revolution. She goes so far as to suggest the use of religious networks as "cells" of Revolution. And locates the origin of the principle of religious toleration in the stresses and strains of early American religious history.
Part I: Religion and Society
Chapter 2: The New Heavens and the New Earth
The "forlorne" State of Religion in early Virginia resulted from warfare between Indians and settlers, economic instability and political disruption. Despite the best stated intentions to spread Anglican faith, the Virginia Company did not provide a vital religious life for its young, single, male colonists. The rapid ascent of "new wealth" did nothing to provide incentive for religious institutionalization. Even the Puritan establishment in New England faced initial challenges, with too few ministers to serve the burgeoning settlements beyond Boston. In this field of religious disarray, dissent was rife. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson found themselves able to attract a substantial following precisely because of the disarray in the Puritan establishment. As they went off to settle Providence and Portsmouth, RI they gave new energy to the impulse for religious toleration.
A Grudging Toleration
Charles I granted a colonial charter to his fellow Catholic Cecilius Calvert to settle Maryland in 1632. Yet the number of Catholics in the colony was always overwhelmed by Protestants. Even before the English Civil War forced the Catholic proprietors from the colony, Protestants outnumbered Catholics. The "Act Concerning Religion" grew out of a desire of the Catholics of Maryland to protect themselves and their faith. The Growth of Toleration was the direct result of contest and conflict, not of any high minded principles. With the deposition of James II by William and Mary, Catholic proprietorship was at an end and the Anglican Church was established in Maryland. A similar dynamic of religious diversity and contest forced Stuyvesant to adopt a policy of toleration in New Netherlands. Jews, Lutherans Quakers all served the economic interests of the Dutch West India Company. Toleration was not an idealistic, but rather a practical, maneuver on the company's behalf. The story of Quakers in Massachusetts also helps us understand the pragmatic roots of religious toleration. Quakers turned themselves into martyrs by refusing to submit to Puritan dictates. Whipping nursing mothers and hanging other Quakers, the Puritan fathers felt besieged and increasingly had to justify their actions to the public.
In 1660 when Charles II was returned to the throne, the Restoration Colonies were forced to accept a policy of toleration of dissent because Anglicans were not strong enough in the colonies to force their faith on all. Religious Liberty on Principle only developed in Rhode Island under the leadership of Roger Williams, and amongst the Quakers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Under Roger Williams' leadership in the 1640s, the colony of Rhode Island took a principled stand for religious toleration, even affording Quakers the free exercise of their religion. The Quakers of the Jerseys and Pennsylvania were also moved on principle to afford religious liberty even to Catholics!
Chapter 3: The Clergy
Study of the clergy in colonial America has suffered from fragmentary study and neglect that has relegated it to church historians. Bonomi seeks to understand the lot of the clergy by studying a cross section that allows the reader to get a broader overview. Beginning by reminding us of the shock they must have encountered in coming to the new world, she recounts a tale of slow institutionalization of Anglican, Congregational, Dutch Reformed and Quaker clergy in a first generation of the 17th C and the addition of a new wave of clergy in the 18th C in the form of Presbyterian, Lutheran and German Reformed Churches. As the communities became more settled over the period in question, the increasing professionalization of the clergy through the founding of denominational institutions lead to their increase preeminence over the laity. But that was not always or universally so. To show this, she covers the clergy in three denominations: Anglican, Congregationalist and the German Reformed Church.
The first clergy to receive Bonomi's attention are the Anglicans in the colonial south, particularly in Virginia. There she sees an interplay between the growing planter elite, who consolidated their power in the 1680s after the putting down of Bacon's Rebellion. These elites sought to constrain the power of the Anglican clergy, as they represented the power of London. Hence the local elites resisted the establishment of a Bishop in America, which the clergy felt would have strengthened their position. Instead of a Bishop, London sent a Commissary, Rev. James Blair. Blair served a long tenure and worked closely with the planter aristocracy to establish the Anglican church, a tenure which saw disputations wide and far on the topic of who appointed the rectors, house of burgesses or the governor. The governor eventually won (1748).
The Colonial Anglican Clergy suffer from a bad reputation as a result of their contest with the aristocratic planter. Like Maryland, the clergy of Virginia received no support from the society for the propagation of the gospel in London (SPG), as they were both established Anglican colonies. "The precariousness of their Livings" arose from the fact that they relied upon support from the colonial government, which put them at odds with the local elites who resented taxes to support the clergy from the very start. In other colonies the SPG and other London Anglican agencies supported the work of the clergy. Their lot was far from secure in the sea of diverse religious establishments, beliefs and constituencies.
The Anglican Rector's daily rounds in the New World were far different than the Old. With scattered parishioners in geographically large parishes, the rector was essentially an itinerate and was forced to "make house calls" for weddings, baptisms, funerals, etc. High mortality and frontier population growth presented the challenge of serving the growing flock, least they fall into the hands of Dissenters for lack of Anglican ministers. Another frontier challenge was dealing with the impact of warfare with Indians. Yet the challenged Anglican clergy rose to the occasion as the church grew impressively in America, such that at there were more than 300 Anglican churches in the colonies by 1750.
Congregational Clergymen were under pressure to make way for dissenters after the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Charter in 1684. But they had the support of the local government apparatus to "throw sand" in the machinery of reform. Provincial and local officials assiduously resisted efforts to provide tax exemptions to dissenting churches (here Anglican Church). In contrast to the localism that protected congregationalism in MA, in Connecticut the Say brook Platform called together the ministers of that colony to institute colony-wide reforms that protected the established church from encroachments by dissenters.
The clergy in New England enjoyed significant advantages over their fellows elsewhere. Bonomi points to the growth of institutions of higher learning that produced a healthy supply of ministers. The shortages faced on the frontier of Western MA and Maine/VT/NH were more the result of clergy seeking better parishes in the established/settled areas. Despite wrangling over pay rates, the Congregational clergy seemed to have prospered in the "clean air" of New England.
The middle colonies were the locus of the greatest diversity in ethnic and religious terms, conventionally seen as a source of religious lassitude and viewed by Bonomi as a well spring for renewal in the German ethnic population. Seeking to avoid the contamination of the sects, the German communities formed their own barriers to the diversity around them by relying upon the work of pious lay people. The German Church Clergy of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches were more likely to be schoolmasters or pious lay people. In the Jerseys, New York and Pennsylvania Lutherans has no choice but to rely upon lay leaders. Because settlements did without ordained clergy for a good deal of the early years, wandering charlatans were a clear danger. Stories of these folk lead to the low estimate of the character of the German clergy. When they did arrive, ordained ministers were not always welcomed with open arms. Having to prove their authenticity, they were immediately put on the defensive. Some, like Henry Muhlenberg, stayed. Others returned to Germany in disgust. Bonomi sees this diversity in the Middle Colonies as a source of strength, as it fostered the rise of volunteerism which would come to be a respected American value in the 19th C.
Chapter 4: The Churchgoers
Bonomi starts with a "word about numbers" to put in perspective the statistics for church-going that have long buttressed the arguments in support of declining religious adherence. The church as center of community life looms large in colonial America, but the actual numbers of who belonged to the churches may distort real participation. Pointing to stringent requirements for full church membership in New England, as well as the tribalism that excluded newcomers, she sees even the New England numbers typically marshaled to support the declension thesis as misleading. Looking beyond the settled communities of New England, SPG reports from the growing frontier of the South confirmed that though people held Christian beliefs they may not have had the opportunity to attend formal services. In the middle colonies, the population explosion led the denominations to rely heavily upon itinerancy, further distorting the reliability of purely spastically tabulated formulations.
Turing to an analysis of churchgoing and social rank. Bonomi finds it hard to make direct correlations between church membership and wealth. The COE attracted members from all social strata in the south, even though dominated by the planter aristocracy. In the North, Congregational churches were not the exclusive domain of the wealthy. Things become even more mixed when looking at economic correlations in the middle colonies, where Quakers were mostly dominant. Instead of talking of one religion or another being the province of a particular social stratum, she finds it more helpful to talk of a religion's hegemony in a region. Dissenters in the three regions were not just poorer, which in some cases they were not, rather they were marginalized from the levers of power. Rising to challenge a hegemonic religious power, they had more than pure economic motivations.
Anglicanism in Virginia was a "Gentleman's Religion." Believing in the importance of good works and the primacy of outward religious observance for maintaining social order, planters such as William Byrd II found solace in their religion. George Washington was a faithful Anglican and also saw the importance of religious worship in maintaining a good society. As time wore on, the gentlemen's propensity for rationalism became more pronounced and sermons became more compact and emotionalism receded even further into the background. The contrast between the 2 hour sermons of the Boston Congregationalists and the Richmond 20 minute sermon is clearly related to this dynamic. Yet rationalism also made headway in New England and in the Middle colonies. Where Virginia had its rationalist Thomas Jefferson, so Massachusetts had its John Adams and Philadelphia its Benjamin Franklin. The class issue is perhaps less important, however, for the broader population than the gender one at this time. Increasingly, churchgoing was becoming a social and political event for colonial males, as females were increasingly assuming responsibility for the spiritual well being of their families.
In the mid-18th C, women increasingly assumed the role of religious education of their children. As "Daughters of Zion," women of all social strata found themselves empowered to act on a wider stage. In addition to providing for the religious instruction of their children, society matrons exercised considerable power over who would be selected as minister and other matters of church politics. Their writings on spiritual matters were even taken seriously enough to be included in sermons delivered by men. Quakers were particularly open to the ministry of women, and several of them became martyrs to the cause (Mary Dyer in Boston). Ranging from the preaching of the Congregationalist Sarah Haggar Osborne in Newport, RI to the female administered cloister of the Ephrata in Pennsylvania, women found religion a way to lead rather than merely follow.
The rising role of women in religion is often linked to the feminization of religion in the 18th C. The classic narrative links increasing secularization to this process, and this is not far from the argument made by Cotton Mather, who observed that there were "more Godly women than men" in his congregation in 1759. Mather and others took an experiential/essentialist view that linked women's experience in childbirth to greater piety. Historians since then have argued that men were distracted by commercial pursuits, but Bonomi takes issue with this. Tracing male church participation throughout the colonies she concludes that it was the professionalization of the ministry that forced men out. As lay leaders were replaced by ordained clergy they saw less reason for their participation. Though all denominations provided for the education of the young in matters religious, the full participation in church activities was often delayed until people were in their 20s. In a society where 25 was middle aged, this was a significant social factor. The opposite was true of the aged. The elderly were believed to be particularly religious and great respect was accorded to them in churches as a result.
What of the various groups outside of the middling sorts and the well to do? Blacks, Indians and Indentured Servants were all targets of church efforts at conversion to greater or lesser degrees. In the South, as the black slave population grew, masters became increasingly wary of the potentially destabilizing effects of slave conversion. Tensions arose between SPG ministers and the planter elite over this dynamic. Blacks made up only a very small portion of congregations, north and south. Native Americans, in general, proved relatively immune to religious appeals. Despite efforts to bring some of the indentured servants and poor into religious communities, for much of the 18th C most remained outside the embrace of the denominations.
For a time, the religious revivals referred to collectively as the Great Awakening (17303-1740s) brought more men and young people into the Christian fold and enlarged church membership for a time to include the marginalized poor, Indians and blacks (slave and free). Bonomi argues that blacks were especially receptive to the message of revival, taking quickly to the evangelical ministry in song and even shaming their masters to attend church (here the story of Robert Carter's oldest slave Dadda Gumby). She sees the roots of African-American Christianity in this revival religious upsurge. Perhaps the most important part of the revival, however, was the fact that it brought more ministers into the field to serve the increasing numbers of remote frontier settlements. The overall impact, at a macro level, was then to increase the already growing Christianization (to borrow a phrase from Butler) of the colonies.
June 5, 2020
very well written and easy to read, Bonomi’s work provides a nice summary of work done on all of the original colonies, including as many denominations as possible (besides Catholicism). notably missing is acknowledgement that black folks—enslaved and free—were quite active in southern Christianity. she gestures at this in the new preface.
a clear example working against the common trope in early american history departments that late colonials weren’t very religious.
her overall treatment of evangelicalism is very flat—no supernaturalism, no presence (that is to say, no God). even the emotion of evangelicalism is somewhat evacuated to maintain her brisk narrative pace and isolate one of her objectives: to demonstrate that the ecclesiastical crises and feuds caused by the Great Awakening (after 1740) set precedent for later political activism and rebellion that fomented the Revolution. she is mostly compelling in this regard, and in her discussions of the eighteenth century not being one of “declension” in the loss of Puritanism, but in religious diversity producing competition and life. she also fairly redeems the reputations of the Anglican clergy in the South, often decried as immoral libertines too busy drinking to mind souls. in fact, she seems to have something of a soft spot for Anglicans, and certainly could have done more to limit her derision of evangelicals. these biases come through in her selective framing of her historical interlocutors—she is unlikely to qualify a dig against crazy evangelicals, whereas she goes at great length to do the necessary work of debunking inflated rumors (that still echo in more recent scholarship) of Anglican immorality. as a result, i felt her descriptions of evangelicalism were extremely flat—religion being hardly more than an ethical and political guide that might excite the soul.
a clear example working against the common trope in early american history departments that late colonials weren’t very religious.
her overall treatment of evangelicalism is very flat—no supernaturalism, no presence (that is to say, no God). even the emotion of evangelicalism is somewhat evacuated to maintain her brisk narrative pace and isolate one of her objectives: to demonstrate that the ecclesiastical crises and feuds caused by the Great Awakening (after 1740) set precedent for later political activism and rebellion that fomented the Revolution. she is mostly compelling in this regard, and in her discussions of the eighteenth century not being one of “declension” in the loss of Puritanism, but in religious diversity producing competition and life. she also fairly redeems the reputations of the Anglican clergy in the South, often decried as immoral libertines too busy drinking to mind souls. in fact, she seems to have something of a soft spot for Anglicans, and certainly could have done more to limit her derision of evangelicals. these biases come through in her selective framing of her historical interlocutors—she is unlikely to qualify a dig against crazy evangelicals, whereas she goes at great length to do the necessary work of debunking inflated rumors (that still echo in more recent scholarship) of Anglican immorality. as a result, i felt her descriptions of evangelicalism were extremely flat—religion being hardly more than an ethical and political guide that might excite the soul.
February 3, 2014
Note: This review is of the updated edition (2003). I am not sure how extensive the updating is. At the very least, there is an expanded preface that discusses historiographical advances since the first publication.
Under the Cope of Heaven attempts to do several things, and usually manages them well. First, it attempts a balance between a top-down historiography that stresses the plans of religious leaders and a bottom-up approach that reconstructs the religious experiences of ordinary and marginalized people. This choice was helpful in pursuing some of her goals, but also left the book bereft of striking fine-grained portraits.
Second, the book argues that religion was not in decline in the 18th century before the Revolution, but actually increasing in vitality. She views the Great Awakening as an indicator rather than the cause of this vitality. She employs both quantitative studies and documentary sources. Her argument sounds plausible, but it is difficult to judge the relative merits of disparate claims without a technical comparison of methods.
Third, Bonomi tackles the relationship between religion and politics in preparation for the Revolution. She eschews pointing to specific doctrinal ideas, such as Calvinism vs. Arminianism, as lines of demarcation. Rather, she argues that the expanding denominational politics of the early 18th century, restructured and amplified by the Great Awakening, provided the rhetorical motifs and political units that would be activated in the Revolution. Even before the Revolution, the local church was the basic unit of politics, with activist preachers molding and firing public opinion. Regional religious associations furnished networks for circulating political opinion and mobilizing political action. A central justification for armed resistance was the threat that the English were seeking to impose religious tyranny by enforcing the Church of England on the colonies. This part of the book was sometimes tough slogging, as one is introduced to a host of petty disputes and unfamiliar names that built up the denominational institutions. Yet this close analysis is repaid with a powerful argument that illuminates the nature of the Revolution.
Bonomi's arguments for religious vitality and for the centrality of religious institutions in the Revolution are well executed. Yet the book does not always seem to flow well, as there is an awkward shift from the first argument to the other. The balance of top-down and bottom-up sometimes seems off, as the discussion of institutional politics is far more central to the book's motivating concerns than her forays into black and Indian Christianity. Also, occasionally Bonomi makes judgments that lack support in her text or even seem entirely wrongheaded. For example, she cites Muhlenberg's increasing involvement in politics as evidence of increasing secularization; but certainly more religion in the public sphere is the opposite of secularization. I think there are books that treat this period better overall (Butler's Awash in a Sea of Faith and Noll's America's God come to mind), but her contributions are too important for an Americanist to overlook.
Under the Cope of Heaven attempts to do several things, and usually manages them well. First, it attempts a balance between a top-down historiography that stresses the plans of religious leaders and a bottom-up approach that reconstructs the religious experiences of ordinary and marginalized people. This choice was helpful in pursuing some of her goals, but also left the book bereft of striking fine-grained portraits.
Second, the book argues that religion was not in decline in the 18th century before the Revolution, but actually increasing in vitality. She views the Great Awakening as an indicator rather than the cause of this vitality. She employs both quantitative studies and documentary sources. Her argument sounds plausible, but it is difficult to judge the relative merits of disparate claims without a technical comparison of methods.
Third, Bonomi tackles the relationship between religion and politics in preparation for the Revolution. She eschews pointing to specific doctrinal ideas, such as Calvinism vs. Arminianism, as lines of demarcation. Rather, she argues that the expanding denominational politics of the early 18th century, restructured and amplified by the Great Awakening, provided the rhetorical motifs and political units that would be activated in the Revolution. Even before the Revolution, the local church was the basic unit of politics, with activist preachers molding and firing public opinion. Regional religious associations furnished networks for circulating political opinion and mobilizing political action. A central justification for armed resistance was the threat that the English were seeking to impose religious tyranny by enforcing the Church of England on the colonies. This part of the book was sometimes tough slogging, as one is introduced to a host of petty disputes and unfamiliar names that built up the denominational institutions. Yet this close analysis is repaid with a powerful argument that illuminates the nature of the Revolution.
Bonomi's arguments for religious vitality and for the centrality of religious institutions in the Revolution are well executed. Yet the book does not always seem to flow well, as there is an awkward shift from the first argument to the other. The balance of top-down and bottom-up sometimes seems off, as the discussion of institutional politics is far more central to the book's motivating concerns than her forays into black and Indian Christianity. Also, occasionally Bonomi makes judgments that lack support in her text or even seem entirely wrongheaded. For example, she cites Muhlenberg's increasing involvement in politics as evidence of increasing secularization; but certainly more religion in the public sphere is the opposite of secularization. I think there are books that treat this period better overall (Butler's Awash in a Sea of Faith and Noll's America's God come to mind), but her contributions are too important for an Americanist to overlook.
May 23, 2013
In her broad 1986 survey of colonial religion Under the Cope of Heaven Patricia U. Bonomi incorporated both neo-progressive and fusionist approaches. While many studies of colonial religious life suggested either declining religiosity or an interpenetration of secular rhetoric with religious overtones which might appear on the surface to be declining religiosity, Bonomi argued that religion was a rising tide in the Age of Reason. Taking an organizational approach, she used as evidence figures on the establishment of new congregations, finding both expanding denominations and denominational variety in mainland North America. The Great Awakening fits into Bonomi’s narrative as one of the factors which increased denominational variety, although the heavy influx of religiously diverse immigrants was another main factor. The outcome of the diversity was an intense competition for worshippers, leading churches to adopt opportunistic rather than theologically rigid positions and to be thin skinned about unequal legal privileges granted to other denominations.
It is in this quarrelsome religious sphere that Bonomi locates the engine for the political events leading toward the revolution, writing that “when the people saw their ministers locked in public combat, in the course of which they openly heaped verbal and printed abuse on each other and vigorously contested for popular support, it seemed increasingly apparent that something was changing – that a kind of license was being granted for a more broadly based and contentious style of public life.” As prevalent as “real Whig” ideology was, the sweeping tide of mid-18th century political thought was the minimization of conflict, faction and instability. It is the impetus from the contentious religious sphere, both generally and specifically in the conspiracy theories of an Anglican episcopate which mobilized elements of “real Whig” ideology available to legitimate resistance in the defense of religious liberty.
It is in this quarrelsome religious sphere that Bonomi locates the engine for the political events leading toward the revolution, writing that “when the people saw their ministers locked in public combat, in the course of which they openly heaped verbal and printed abuse on each other and vigorously contested for popular support, it seemed increasingly apparent that something was changing – that a kind of license was being granted for a more broadly based and contentious style of public life.” As prevalent as “real Whig” ideology was, the sweeping tide of mid-18th century political thought was the minimization of conflict, faction and instability. It is the impetus from the contentious religious sphere, both generally and specifically in the conspiracy theories of an Anglican episcopate which mobilized elements of “real Whig” ideology available to legitimate resistance in the defense of religious liberty.
February 24, 2017
The book, while readable without extensive knowledge of 17th and 18th century religion, does not stop its wide-ranging narrative to explain the background of events, like the Great Awakening, which is a key turning point in her argument to find the linkage between it and the revolution, is introduced early in the book but not explained until page 160 and then only in passing. She frequently fails to introduce influential people important enough for her study, but not commonly known. The detailed and fascinating look into the practice and history of religion in the earliest American societies makes a great reason to read her study. One trend was clearly evident. Americans, even the clergy, were unwilling to condone a government infused with divine right that demanded passive obedience. This may be the crux of Bonomi’s thrust—and it is a bold one. From the preaching of itinerant preachers on the frontier to the wealthiest church in the best town, the actions of clergy as they struggled for identity and political power, encouraged dissent as a significant part of colonial culture. The challenge was to find the point where resistance and obedience balanced for the common good and a stable society. Instead, the dissident sense of identity found cause in Britain’s attack on their civil and religious liberties a potent justification for rebellion. More than two centuries later, religion remains a significant part of American life permeating nearly all institutions and societies.
January 19, 2012
Bonomi responds to years of scholarship that depicts American religion as in decline during the 18th century, and claims instead it was a time of great proliferation and growth. She does not claim the religiosity was due to an increase in doctrinal vigor. In particular, Bonomi argues that minority religious adherence was used to advance the Revolutionary cause. Outsider religions (e.g. Quakers) were seen as a threat to social order. Points out congregationalist advantage in their multitude of clergy. Vigorous religious competition in the Middle Colonies stimulated rather than discouraged church growth. Bonomi argues that the combination of religious competition/denominational wars, Englightenment rationalism, urbanization and its public gatherings, and Continental pietism inspired the Great Awakening. GA also acted a as a training period for the Revolutionary period of mobilization. The GA transferred power from community to the individual and is considered the first major interoclonial criss of the mind and spirit in 18th c. America. Bonomi claims denominational politics bridged the gap between the GA and American Revolution. Many religious leaders claimed to support the Brits was to sin against god. Bonomi depicts religion in American in 17th c. as transplantation, 18th as stabilization, and 19th as modernization.
October 23, 2012
I really liked this one. I'm glad I bought rather than borrowed it- this should stay on the shelf as an argument to refer back to. Bonomi argues that in the British colonies of the 18th Century, religion was not in decline, as some have argued, but rather was in an era of vitality and growth. It wasn't that few people attended church- practically everyone attended church if they could. Religious materials were the biggest category of printed material. Religious discourse was a universal discourse. This was an era of competition between sects, church building, expansion of religious communities into the hinterland. Bonomi has a lot of great material here to back up her argument, and her writing is stylish and fun to read.
I'm not sure I'm 100% on board with the connection she draws between the Great Awakening and the Revolution. It's not that it doesn't make any sense, but I'm not convinced that this is a particularly important connection for understanding the Revolution. But it's a worthwhile argument to keep in mind and remind oneself of later.
I'm not sure I'm 100% on board with the connection she draws between the Great Awakening and the Revolution. It's not that it doesn't make any sense, but I'm not convinced that this is a particularly important connection for understanding the Revolution. But it's a worthwhile argument to keep in mind and remind oneself of later.
April 1, 2019
In "Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America," Patricia Bonomi examines the strength and influence of Christianity on American culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She states that many historians of colonial America argue that there was a decline in American religious life during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. However, Bonomi argues that this is a misinterpretation of the historical evidence. According to Bonomi, the various colonial Christian denominations were influential in the settlement of the colonies and American churches and clergy had incredible influence over the development of American life and thought. Bonomi uses a wide variety of primary and secondary sources to argue that the eighteenth century was actually a time of vibrant religious growth and that Christianity and the church had a profound influence on the American Revolution.
Bonomi argues that the church played an essential role in the development of American society and political thought. Bonomi points out that founders of the colonies saw Christianity as an “ally of orderly government” and established state churches (13). However, the 1600s was an “age of diversity and experimentation” within Christianity (15). Many religious dissenters belonged to denominations different than the state church. Bonomi argues that these dissenters and the religious diversity they created eventually led to more religious toleration in the American colonies. Across the thirteen colonies, most America adults attended church. Churches were often the center of the community and the people’s social life, especially on the frontier. Church attendance often transcended class boundaries, and many colonial ministers were concerned with the wellbeing of slaves, as well as free people. Religion offered women a chance for intellectual stimulation and the ability to influence their communities. But people need leaders and Bonomi argues that clergymen provided political as well as spiritual leadership. Americans loved good sermons and itinerant preachers attracted huge crowds. Clergymen “influenced public opinion primarily through preaching,” (212) although many became directly involved in politics during the Revolutionary era. In the second half of the book, Bonomi turns to proving that American clergy and the Great Awakening were influential in convincing the American people to support the revolution. The Great Awakening resulted in popular participation in “denominational politics” (186) and a “proliferation of religious and political factions” (160). Religious disagreements contributed to an “ideology of dissent” (188) in America, which encouraged the American people to resist British tyranny. Patriot clergymen taught that resistance to the British was just and right and were seen as the “prime leaders of the rebellion” (222). According to Bonomi, “religious doctrine and rhetoric…. Contributed in a fundamental way to the coming of the American Revolution and to its final success”(216).
Bonomi makes a convincing and well-supported case in her book. Perhaps its greatest strength is the diversity of historical examples. Bonomi supports her arguments with examples from north and south, east and west, established denominations and dissenters, men and women, upper class, lower class and even slaves. She examines a diversity of thought and experiences among American Christians across a century of American history, but does so in a way that is easy to understand and interesting to read. Another strength of the book is that it combines areas of study that are often separated. Bonomi acknowledges that study of colonial clergymen is often “left to church historians” (39). Bonomi makes a helpful contribution to the study of colonial America by integrating the study of church history with the study of American social development and colonial politics. This is where her use of primary source material from colonial clergymen is particularly helpful to her arguments. On the other hand, her arguments could have been strengthened by more discussion of the theological differences between the various groups of American Christians. She often focuses on the political disagreements between various Christian denominations without explaining what it was they actually disagreed on. Also, there is very little examination of loyalist Christians during the Revolutionary period. It might have been helpful to include a discussion of how Christian loyalists used their faith to justify their opposition to the revolutionary movement and their loyalty to Britain. Such a discussion would have strengthened Bonomi’s argument by demonstrating the influence of Christianity on people of differing political viewpoints. It would also have provided an interesting contrast to her description of the pro-revolution Christians.
"Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society and Politics in Colonial America" is an important addition to the study of the worldview of America’s founding generation. Bonomi’s analysis of historical examples helps her effectively demonstrate the influence of Christianity on the social, cultural, and political development of the American colonies. Her arguments about the influence of Christianity on the American Revolution are particularly compelling. The church was an incredibly important part of colonial American life, thus, understanding how American patriots viewed their religion is essential to any study of the American Revolution and the ideas that shaped it.
August 12, 2011
Bonomi's overview of colonial religion is mostly good but at times really scattered. She makes a good case about the political significance of religion in America.
September 10, 2021
Patricia Bonomi’s "Under the Cope of Heaven" addresses the religious history of colonial America, as a field “experiencing a kind of awakening” (p. xvi) in early American scholarship. Throughout the book she argues that religion in colonial America cannot be sufficiently studied by scrutinizing single religious communities, demographical groups, theologies, or discrete incidents of dissent, seeing as early Americans lived “in a world where religion formed a key component of their mental landscape” (p. xx). This becomes especially clear in her analysis of the Great Awakening, not only on the religious level, but also its irrevocable influence on American society in terms of individualism and political radicalism.
Bonomi rejects and complicates the declension thesis with her extensive foray into colonial religious life, and demonstrates that church life was central to the colonialists – for reasons of worship, socialization, and communal solidarity. What scholars assumed to be declension, she argues, was a lack of doctrinal rigor and increasing latitude towards denominational affiliations, spurred by the social realities of different sects and the ecclesial decentralization imposed by the geography like the lack of ministers and sparse distribution of churches.
In Part II, Bonomi presents an inextricable link between early American Christianity and politics, leading up to the Revolution. She argues that where political arguments may have been the domain of the educated, politically-oriented middle classes, their religious connotations of endangered religious liberty aroused others, because they were more tangible, more lived. Clergy, like laypeople, were embroiled on both sides of the increasing polarization.
By expanding the definition of religion beyond official doctrine, Bonomi and Hall also expand its scope – providing an alternative narrative to declension and inviting us to consider the religious scaffolding that undergirded colonial American life.
Bonomi rejects and complicates the declension thesis with her extensive foray into colonial religious life, and demonstrates that church life was central to the colonialists – for reasons of worship, socialization, and communal solidarity. What scholars assumed to be declension, she argues, was a lack of doctrinal rigor and increasing latitude towards denominational affiliations, spurred by the social realities of different sects and the ecclesial decentralization imposed by the geography like the lack of ministers and sparse distribution of churches.
In Part II, Bonomi presents an inextricable link between early American Christianity and politics, leading up to the Revolution. She argues that where political arguments may have been the domain of the educated, politically-oriented middle classes, their religious connotations of endangered religious liberty aroused others, because they were more tangible, more lived. Clergy, like laypeople, were embroiled on both sides of the increasing polarization.
By expanding the definition of religion beyond official doctrine, Bonomi and Hall also expand its scope – providing an alternative narrative to declension and inviting us to consider the religious scaffolding that undergirded colonial American life.
June 18, 2017
Very good argument that religion in colonial America served as a major part of society. "Social religion": Individuals participated in local churches that had active programming, activities, etc. — not necessarily out of devout faith, but out of a desire for something to do. Religious groups provided a crucial forum and network of contacts in which colonists could debate the Stamp Act crisis, the French and Indian War, and of course the American Revolution. Patricia Bonomi shows that, contrary to the claims of early-twentieth-century historians like Perry Miller, religious culture wasn't in decline in the 1700s. Rather, more people were participating, as they wanted to be in that social environment churches offered.
So why 3 stars? A good chunk of the book is another straightforward history of the settling of the colonies, and not necessarily connected to the topic of "social religion." I'm well aware you need to establish the context for a story before getting to the specifics, but there are plenty of other books recounting the settlement of the eastern seaboard. When Bonomi gets to the social religion stuff, such as the adventures of Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, it's quality material, but I'd have preferred some more case studies.
Also — this book came out well before Facebook existed, but I wonder if you can apply the idea of a "Social Network" to the correspondence between all the churches. It seems like a valid idea!
So why 3 stars? A good chunk of the book is another straightforward history of the settling of the colonies, and not necessarily connected to the topic of "social religion." I'm well aware you need to establish the context for a story before getting to the specifics, but there are plenty of other books recounting the settlement of the eastern seaboard. When Bonomi gets to the social religion stuff, such as the adventures of Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, it's quality material, but I'd have preferred some more case studies.
Also — this book came out well before Facebook existed, but I wonder if you can apply the idea of a "Social Network" to the correspondence between all the churches. It seems like a valid idea!
October 1, 2013
In her book, Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society and Politics in Colonial America, Patricia Bonomi writes a social history of the British colonies in North America through the American Revolution. Her work focuses on the diversity of Christian congregations in the colonies and the relationship between politics and religion in British North America. This relationship seems to be characterized by lay participation in religious congregations and a lack of deference for the authority of the clergy. These two aspects of American Christianity were also present in American colonial politics. Bromoni argues against the notion that people living in the British colonies were less religious in the eighteenth century than they had been during the previous century. She contends that this notion is the result of historians placing too much emphasis on the perception of the clergy in colonial America.
Bromoni’s book is written thematically and is divided into two parts. The first part of the book is dedicated to a study of the place of religion in the society of British America. In this part of her book Bromoni describes the religious diversity in the colonies including Congregationalists in New England, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Reformed in New York, and Anglicans in the southern colonies. Many of these groups, especially the Quakers and Congregationalists, expected to build an ideal world in the colonies. In this ideal world, clergymen found themselves overworked as they struggled to meet the spiritual needs of their widely dispersed parishes. In some areas itinerate clergymen traveled from town to town delivering sacraments to believers. In other regions congregations relied on volunteers to direct services. The parishioners in the British colonies tended to fall along a spectrum from extremely pious, characterized by frequent attendance of religious services, to “horse shed” Christians who rarely attended services or spent more time on Sundays talking to neighbors about prices for farm products rather than listening to sermons. These church-goers were mostly older and more women than men attended services regularly. After the Great Awakening these demographics shifted as more men and younger Christians began participating in church services. Finally, in general there seems to have been more lay participation in congregations than was the case in Europe at the time.
The second part of the book deals with the part that religion played in politics in colonial and revolutionary America. First, Bromoni discusses the way that the Great Awakening altered the religious and political culture of the colonies. During the Awakening, not only did the participants in religious activity become younger, but they demanded more out of their clergy in terms of “being converted” rather than simply being qualified through education. Parishioners were also willing to question and challenge the clergy. This willingness to question authority transferred to politics as colonists in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Virginia became willing to challenge the authority of local officials. Second, the author describes the impact of religion on the American Revolution including the controversy over plans to install an Anglican Bishop in the colonies and the promotion of the revolutionary cause by local clergy. In the revolution, the colonials did not turn to anti-clericalism as would be the case in other revolutions.
The pivotal event described in Bromoni’s work is the Great Awakening in the British colonies during the 1740s. Bromoni points out that this religious movement resulted from the desire among lay Christians for a “converted” clergy rather than simply a professional, educated clergy. Though this religious movement took on a different form in each of the regions discussed in the book, the Great Awakening enhanced the willingness of colonists to challenge authority, both religious and political. This lack of deference to authority carried over to the controversy over the possible appointment of an Anglican Bishop for the colonies and the American Revolution.
Under the Cope of Heaven should be upheld as an example of excellent scholarship and thorough historiography. Drawing on a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Bromoni manages to write a highly compelling and accessible read. These sources include census data, immigration records, sermons, letters, period images, journals, and public records. A great example of the way that Bromoni uses images to enhance the validity of her argument can be seen in her chapter on the American Revolution. Bromoni argues that British plans to install an Anglican bishop in America contributed to discontent with parliament. This discontent can be seen in a piece of revolutionary propaganda from the 1770s which Bromoni uses to prove her point.
Question: Bromoni argues that the short supply of ministers among German congregations resulted in high levels of volunteerism in the German religious community. Lacking leadership, German congregations would appoint a minister from among themselves. German Christians volunteered their time in the “initial gathering of congregations, building of churches, and conducting of services.” (82) Bonomi further argues that voluntary associations emerged as instruments of change by the nineteenth century. If German Christians were accustomed to volunteerism, did German colonists volunteer for service in the continental army in greater numbers than other colonists during the American Revolution?
Bromoni’s book is written thematically and is divided into two parts. The first part of the book is dedicated to a study of the place of religion in the society of British America. In this part of her book Bromoni describes the religious diversity in the colonies including Congregationalists in New England, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Reformed in New York, and Anglicans in the southern colonies. Many of these groups, especially the Quakers and Congregationalists, expected to build an ideal world in the colonies. In this ideal world, clergymen found themselves overworked as they struggled to meet the spiritual needs of their widely dispersed parishes. In some areas itinerate clergymen traveled from town to town delivering sacraments to believers. In other regions congregations relied on volunteers to direct services. The parishioners in the British colonies tended to fall along a spectrum from extremely pious, characterized by frequent attendance of religious services, to “horse shed” Christians who rarely attended services or spent more time on Sundays talking to neighbors about prices for farm products rather than listening to sermons. These church-goers were mostly older and more women than men attended services regularly. After the Great Awakening these demographics shifted as more men and younger Christians began participating in church services. Finally, in general there seems to have been more lay participation in congregations than was the case in Europe at the time.
The second part of the book deals with the part that religion played in politics in colonial and revolutionary America. First, Bromoni discusses the way that the Great Awakening altered the religious and political culture of the colonies. During the Awakening, not only did the participants in religious activity become younger, but they demanded more out of their clergy in terms of “being converted” rather than simply being qualified through education. Parishioners were also willing to question and challenge the clergy. This willingness to question authority transferred to politics as colonists in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Virginia became willing to challenge the authority of local officials. Second, the author describes the impact of religion on the American Revolution including the controversy over plans to install an Anglican Bishop in the colonies and the promotion of the revolutionary cause by local clergy. In the revolution, the colonials did not turn to anti-clericalism as would be the case in other revolutions.
The pivotal event described in Bromoni’s work is the Great Awakening in the British colonies during the 1740s. Bromoni points out that this religious movement resulted from the desire among lay Christians for a “converted” clergy rather than simply a professional, educated clergy. Though this religious movement took on a different form in each of the regions discussed in the book, the Great Awakening enhanced the willingness of colonists to challenge authority, both religious and political. This lack of deference to authority carried over to the controversy over the possible appointment of an Anglican Bishop for the colonies and the American Revolution.
Under the Cope of Heaven should be upheld as an example of excellent scholarship and thorough historiography. Drawing on a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Bromoni manages to write a highly compelling and accessible read. These sources include census data, immigration records, sermons, letters, period images, journals, and public records. A great example of the way that Bromoni uses images to enhance the validity of her argument can be seen in her chapter on the American Revolution. Bromoni argues that British plans to install an Anglican bishop in America contributed to discontent with parliament. This discontent can be seen in a piece of revolutionary propaganda from the 1770s which Bromoni uses to prove her point.
Question: Bromoni argues that the short supply of ministers among German congregations resulted in high levels of volunteerism in the German religious community. Lacking leadership, German congregations would appoint a minister from among themselves. German Christians volunteered their time in the “initial gathering of congregations, building of churches, and conducting of services.” (82) Bonomi further argues that voluntary associations emerged as instruments of change by the nineteenth century. If German Christians were accustomed to volunteerism, did German colonists volunteer for service in the continental army in greater numbers than other colonists during the American Revolution?
November 2, 2018
Pretty interesting read.
Want to read
June 1, 2020Might have read this in college?
January 16, 2016
It wasn't a bad book. It proposed a lot of interesting ideas. It was just a tedious read for me that I procrastinated too long on and had to finish it in a few days.
September 11, 2014
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November 12, 2018
Required for Colonial American Reading Seminar PhD course
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