American Sacraments: Religion and Ritual in the Early United States

Abstract

“American Sacraments: Religion and Ritual in the Early United States” is a thematic history of nineteenth-century American religion organized around religious practices, particularly the formal, stylized, and controversial practices often called “rituals.” In textured case studies of American evangelicals, Episcopalians, Mormons, and others, the project breaks from convention by placing these rites—along with their evolving uses, meanings, and politics—at the center of its analysis, an arrangement that yields a range of new insights and requires some sharp historical revisions. Among of the most significant discoveries of this approach is the value of rituals as markers for not only the historical evolution of particular religious movements, but also large-scale processes, including secularization or disenchantment. At the same time, rituals also provide a new and crucial vantage point for understanding the limitations of secular trends on the threshold of modernity and, indeed, the vitality and perpetuation of sacramental traditions in the United States.