Kyle B. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226388144
- eISBN:
- 9780226388281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226388281.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter focuses on the work of evangelicals Charles Grandison Finney, Lewis Tappan, and David Hale. Through his liberating message and personal example, Finney appealed to middle-class ...
More
This chapter focuses on the work of evangelicals Charles Grandison Finney, Lewis Tappan, and David Hale. Through his liberating message and personal example, Finney appealed to middle-class evangelical businessmen like Lewis Tappan and David Hale, a successful newspaper editor. Finney's linkage of reform with new understandings of individualism provided the city's laity with a justification for their benevolent efforts, which had begun with the sponsorship of local urban missions and expanded into making New York a national center for a broad range of reforms. Finney, Tappan, and Hale were born in New England, converted to evangelicalism in adulthood, and held worldviews shaped by their participation in the expanding market culture. This extensive experience informed (and funded) their efforts. Finney, in turn, relied on their financial, administrative, and organizational talents to ensure himself a venue. Together they would spread evangelicalism by reforming it. In the process, they learned the limits of what their fellow evangelicals and the larger city would accept.Less
This chapter focuses on the work of evangelicals Charles Grandison Finney, Lewis Tappan, and David Hale. Through his liberating message and personal example, Finney appealed to middle-class evangelical businessmen like Lewis Tappan and David Hale, a successful newspaper editor. Finney's linkage of reform with new understandings of individualism provided the city's laity with a justification for their benevolent efforts, which had begun with the sponsorship of local urban missions and expanded into making New York a national center for a broad range of reforms. Finney, Tappan, and Hale were born in New England, converted to evangelicalism in adulthood, and held worldviews shaped by their participation in the expanding market culture. This extensive experience informed (and funded) their efforts. Finney, in turn, relied on their financial, administrative, and organizational talents to ensure himself a venue. Together they would spread evangelicalism by reforming it. In the process, they learned the limits of what their fellow evangelicals and the larger city would accept.
Larry E. Morris
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190699093
- eISBN:
- 9780190699123
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190699093.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religious Studies
The period from the autumn of 1828 to March 1829 was an interregnum of sorts because Joseph Smith was in Harmony, Pennsylvania, providing for his family, as shown by David Hale’s store ledger. Joseph ...
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The period from the autumn of 1828 to March 1829 was an interregnum of sorts because Joseph Smith was in Harmony, Pennsylvania, providing for his family, as shown by David Hale’s store ledger. Joseph “Could not translate But little Being poor and nobody to write for him But his wife and she Could not do much and take Care of her house and he Being poor and no means to live But work.” In another sense, however, this interregnum proved quite significant because Oliver Cowdery arrived on the scene. In September 1828 he likely knew nothing of any gold plates, but by the end of March 1829, he was well on his way to becoming the cofounder of Mormonism. When the rehabilitation of Martin Harris and the curiosity of newcomer David Whitmer are figured into the equation, this seven-month period looks anything but routine.Less
The period from the autumn of 1828 to March 1829 was an interregnum of sorts because Joseph Smith was in Harmony, Pennsylvania, providing for his family, as shown by David Hale’s store ledger. Joseph “Could not translate But little Being poor and nobody to write for him But his wife and she Could not do much and take Care of her house and he Being poor and no means to live But work.” In another sense, however, this interregnum proved quite significant because Oliver Cowdery arrived on the scene. In September 1828 he likely knew nothing of any gold plates, but by the end of March 1829, he was well on his way to becoming the cofounder of Mormonism. When the rehabilitation of Martin Harris and the curiosity of newcomer David Whitmer are figured into the equation, this seven-month period looks anything but routine.
