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

As he surveyed the fractured situation in towns across New England, Stiles noted with mounting concern the growing number of people who seemed indifferent to the Congregational establishment altogether and “very seldom” came to Sabbath meetings. He struggled to develop a vocabulary to describe these “Non Communicants,” “Neutrals,” people of “no Denomination,” and “stay at home Christians.” Eventually, Stiles settled on a single word to describe their anomalous status. He called them “Nothingarians.”