Republic of Righteousness: The Public Christianity of the Post-Revolutionary New England Clergy

by Jonathan D. Sassi

This book examines the debate over the connection between religion and public life in society during the fifty years following the American Revolution. Sassi challenges the conventional wisdom, finding an essential continuity to the period's public Christianity, whereas most previous studies have seen this period as one in which the nation's cultural paradigm shifted from republicanism to liberal individualism. Focusing on the Congregational clergy of New England, he demonstrates that throughout this period there were Americans concerned with their corporate destiny, retaining a commitment to constructing a righteous community and assessing the cosmic meaning of the American experiment.

312 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2001

Reviews

[Shane Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Sassi goes to great lengths to show exactly how "elites mattered." (22)

Very revisionist of him!

But he's careful with this scholarship, while covering extremely familiar territory.