Adin Ballou&#039;s Spiritual Journey Through Nineteenth-Century New England

Bryce Hal Taylor

doi:10.5771/9781498589727

Summary

New England Christianity in the nineteenth century produced an almost unending stream of new and old denominations that speckled the landscape. Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Universalists, Spiritualists, Unitarians, Restorationists, and Calvinists—to name a few—beckoned each individual to join their growing movements. Each professed its truths and some proclaimed theirs was the only path leading to salvation. Admist this Christian angst, Adin Ballou began his spiritual quest to obtain truth.

Through Ballou's lengthy spiritual quest, from 1820 to 1880, this book examines how denominational histories, however important, do not explain what a nineteenth-century New England Christian became. Ballou exemplifies this paradox. Always fixed, but never settled. Once a believer chose a path, new phenomena and teachings immediately appeared leaving one's truth claims transient. Through the Christian maze of nineteenth-century New England, Ballou's Christian faith was simply his own.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4985-8971-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4985-8972-7
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 260
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
1. Methodology and Outline No access
2. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Providence No access
3. The Chrisitan Connexion No access
4. Common Sense, the Bible, and Ballou versus Ballou No access
5. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. From Annihalation to Salvation No access
3. Universal Schism No access
4. Failure in New York No access
5. Becoming a Restorationist No access
6. A New Denomination—A New Society No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Ballou’s Temperance No access
3. Ballou’s Abolitionism No access
4. Abolitionist Schism No access
5. The Raid on Harper’s Ferry No access
6. Conclusion No access
7. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Constitutionalism No access
3. The Beginnings No access
4. Survival and Divine Approval No access
5. In the World but Not of the World No access
6. Searching beyond the Veil No access
7. The End of Practical Christian Socialism No access
8. Conclusion No access
9. Notes No access
1. Introduction No access
2. From Patriot to Principle No access
3. The New England Non-Resistance Society No access
4. Ballou’s Christian Non-Resistance No access
5. Non-Resistance and the Civil War No access
6. A Glimmer of Hope in Hopedale—Ballou and Leo Tolstoy No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Notes No access
1. Primary Works No access
2. Secondary Works No access
Index No access Pages 249 - 258
About the Author No access Pages 259 - 260