Authority, Identity, and the Bible in the Early Republic

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Seth Perry
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Explicit Reference ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Revolutionary Period

This book examines “the authority of the Bible” in the decades after the American Revolution. The early post-revolutionary period has long been recognized by historians as a tumultuous era for both religion and politics. During these years, the Bible emerged as a source of symbols and models for the creation of authoritative relationships. The phrase “the authority of the Bible” was in reference to the Bible's status as a complicated site of contestation with respect to religious authority. This book explores the print-bible culture that made various forms of bible usage possible in the early Republic. It considers the authoritative importance of explicit reference to Protestant religious authority as an aspect of biblical facility, as well as the association of the Bible with political identity. Finally, it analyzes the place of print-bible culture, citationality, performance, and the scripturalization of biblically resonant visionary texts in earliest Mormonism, and more specifically Joseph Smith.

“Lightnings and Thunderings, and Voices”

2021 ◽  
pp. 146-178
Author(s):  
John Howard Smith
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
American Christianity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Revolutionary Period ◽  
Divine Truth ◽  
Second Coming

The egalitarian energy of the American Revolution powered a wave of popular anti-authoritarianism reacting against Federalist influence in the Washington and Adams administrations. Egalitarian evangelicalism constituted a rebuttal to Enlightenment republicanism. The same process transformed American Christianity into a populist, radically egalitarian and anticlerical religion. Dramatically increased numbers of Baptists and Methodists gave these denominations legitimacy, and many new sects appeared throughout the post-revolutionary period. Against the vocal concerns of established clergymen, evangelical itinerants urged people to read the Scriptures for themselves and come to their own conclusions of what it means to be a Christian, and that no formal education was necessary to understand divine truth. Taking Christ as their example, men and especially women from old and new denominations let their individualistic readings of the Bible, visions, and dreams guide them toward Truth, and convinced many that the Second Coming was near at hand.

The Many Bibles of Joseph Smith

2018 ◽  
pp. 110-128
Author(s):  
Seth Perry
Keyword(s):  
Religious Authority ◽  
Joseph Smith ◽  
Book Of Mormon ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Early National ◽  
The Many

This chapter examines scripturalization in early national America by focusing on the scripturalized community that formed around Joseph Smith and his scriptural productions to extend and amplify a universe of biblical citations and performed roles. In contemporary Mormonism, the story of Smith's career begins with the First Vision. He published the Book of Mormon in 1830, using bibles for its composition. The chapter discusses the place of print-bible culture, citationality, performance, and the scripturalization of biblically resonant visionary texts in earliest Mormonism. It also considers how Smith's texts invited their readers and auditors to regard them as scriptures and therefore to regard him as a prophet. It shows that these texts functioned by citing the Bible, both implicitly and explicitly, and argues that the scripturalized community conjured by Smith and those around him as a classic example of the type of religious authority made possible by early national bible culture.

The Bible and the Creation of the Nation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eran Shalev
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Formative Years

During the American Revolution and the formative years of the creation of the nation, the Bible was pivotal in shaping the public discourse and contemporaries’ political imagination. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, enabled politicians, commentators, laymen, and ministers to depict their young nation as a new, chosen Israel and to rely on its lessons for political guidance. This chapter examines the nature of that distinct biblicism in the early United States at one of its most formative political periods. It studies the ways in which the Bible shaped and helped to facilitate crucial discussions at every level of society when it came to issues regarding republican ideology and constitutional principles.

Enchanted Calvinism

2021 ◽  
pp. 589-607
Author(s):  
Adam Mohr
Keyword(s):  
Bible Study ◽  
Primary Site ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Initial Transformation ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Church

The goal of this chapter is to explain how healing and deliverance practices were instituted in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG). The first half of this chapter examines the PCG’s initial transformation, which was driven by three factors: the decision by the leadership to introduce healing practices into the church, the creation of the Bible Study and Prayer Group to manage the afflicted within congregations, and the influence of two parachurch organizations. The second half of this chapter focuses on Catechist Ebenezer Abboah-Offei, who since 1996 has been leading Grace Presbyterian Church in Akropong, the primary site of healing and deliverance practices within the PCG. With regards to Abboah-Offei, this chapter describes how he came to teach and practise deliverance and the process by which Grace Presbyterian was established. Finally, this chapter describes the various healing and deliverance activities that occur at Grace Presbyterian Church.

Creating the Creation Museum

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen C. Oberlin
Keyword(s):  
Real World Data ◽  
Scopes Trial ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Secular Institution ◽  
Sources Of Authority ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
Mainstream Society ◽  
The Impact

The typical story about creationist social movements centers on battles in the classroom or in the courtroom—like the Scopes Trial in 1925. But there is a new setting: a museum. “Prepare to Believe” is the slogan that greets visitors throughout the Creation Museum located in Petersburg, Kentucky. It carries the message that the organization Answers in Genesis (AiG) uses to welcome fellow believers as well as skeptics since opening in 2007. The Creation Museum seeks to persuade visitors that if one views both the Bible (a close, literal reading) and nature (observational, real world data) as sources of authority, then the earth appears to be much younger than conventionally understood in mainstream society. This book argues that the impact of the Creation Museum does not depend on the accuracy or credibility of its scientific claims, as many scholars, media critics, and political pundits would suggest. Instead, what AiG goes after by creating a physical site like the Creation Museum is the ability to foster plausibility politics—broadening what the audience perceives as possible and amplifying the stakes as the ideas reach more people. Destabilizing the belief that only one type of secular institution may make claims about the age of the earth and human origins, the Creation Museum is a threat to this singular positioning. In doing so, AiG repositions itself to produce longstanding effects on the public’s perception of who may make scientific claims. Creating the Creation Museum is a story about how a group endures.

scholarly journals Why anything rather than nothing? The answer of quantum mechanics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasil Dinev Penchev
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Mathematical Truth ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
In Virtue Of

Many researchers determine the question “Why anything rather than nothing?” as the most ancient and fundamental philosophical problem. Furthermore, it is very close to the idea of Creation shared by religion, science, and philosophy, e.g. as the “Big Bang”, the doctrine of “first cause” or “causa sui”, the Creation in six days in the Bible, etc.Thus, the solution of quantum mechanics, being scientific in fact, can be interpreted also philosophically, and even religiously. However, only the philosophical interpretation is the topic of the text.The essence of the answer of quantum mechanics is:1. The creation is necessary in a rigorous mathematical sense. Thus, it does not need any choice, free will, subject, God, etc. to appear. The world exists in virtue of mathematical necessity, e.g. as any mathematical truth such as 2+2=4.2. The being is less than nothing rather than more than nothing. So, the creation is not an increase of nothing, but the decrease of nothing: it is a deficiency in relation of nothing. Time and its “arrow” are the way of that diminishing or incompleteness to nothing.

scholarly journals Creation accounts in Gen. 1 & 2: a feminist interpretation

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Ubong Ekpenyong Eyo
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Male Gender ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Feminist Interpretation ◽  
Culturally Based ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
Holy Writ ◽  
King James Version

It is the view of most people who claim the authoritative nature of the Bible that, women assigned secondary status in relation to men is ordained and supported in the Bible. Many have quoted different texts of the holy writ to support their culturally-biased position on issue of gender equality. Most often views in respect to gender issues are culturally-based and interpreted rather than divinely-based and interpreted. There is therefore the need to look back at Jesus’ words, “But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.” (Matt 19:4; Mark 10:6 King James Version). The two accounts in the Book of Genesis by the Priestly and Yahwistic strands give a complimentary account of the creation of humankind (both male and female) in the image and likeness of God and their creation from a single stock אדם who was not a male gender. At a cursory reading of the creation accounts, one will tend to see האדם as the male gender, but looking at the Hebrew text more closely it will be noticed that the Hebrew words אישה and אישwere only introduced after the two genders have been separated. Note carefully that it was not איש that was asked to tend the garden, who named the animals, was given instruction of what to eat or what not to eat, who fell into a deep sleep or whose ribs was used in the creation of אישה but it was האדם . It was after the creation or ‘separation’ of אישה (woman – the female האדם) that the other part was called איש (man – the male האדם) (see vv 23 & 24 King James Version). It will therefore not be right to speak of the creation of אישה out of איש, because as at the time of the creation of the former, the later was not in existence as איש To view these creation accounts with the sense of gender superiority (either male over female or vice versa) is to read the texts using lenses which have been obscured and tainted by patriarchal, matriarchal or cultural biases.

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