Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth-Century New England (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early ... and the University of North Carolina Press)

by Douglas L. Winiarski

To be sure, the schisms of the 1740s and 1750s sometimes erupted along preexisting socioeconomic fault lines, and the Separate movement later served as a proving ground for Revolutionary radicalism; yet dissenters seldom cited social, political, or economic issues to justify breaking fellowship with established churches. The roots of their ecclesiastical rebellion lay elsewhere—in the fertile soil of religious enthusiasm.