美国宗教历史

New England Primer
The New England Primer
Horn Books
Noah Webster’s Speller
McGuffey’s Readers
Conveyed considerable religious knowledge
By 1890 the standard reader
Universal Free Education
United States first country to take as an ideal and first to transform that ideal into a reality
1647 Massachusetts Bay Colony mandated public education to ward off the efforts of “that old deluder, satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures.”
“perhaps the most literate place on earth” (61). “Literary rates for whites were higher—for both men and women—in the colonies than on the Continent” (62).
just before the Civil War accounted for most of the nation’s total libraries and nearly half its total library volumes
Reading was preparation for God’s grace Taught to girls as well Republican Motherhood: charged 18th
century mothers with the task of turning their sons into patriotic citizens 19th century: Cult of True Womanhood— woman responsible for moral character of family
Social order depended on morality and morality on religion
Bible reading would foster faith, which would foster ethical behavior, which would sustain social order
ห้องสมุดไป่ตู้
Protestant Reformation
Focus of Christianity shifted from sacraments to scripture, from the idolatry of images to the veracity of words
Sola scriptura (“Bible alone”)
The American experiment, which vested sovereignty in the people, depended for its survival on an informed citizenry.
American Education
Both religious and secular 17th and 18th century New England was
Told stories about children Cultural literary—a shared
set of morals, aesthetics and beliefs
Sunday Schools
Fostered religious literacy by
publishing and distributing religious tracts constructing a vast network of libraries, which
By 1670s every New England colony except Rhode Island had similar laws
Curriculum
Learned ABCs from scripture-saturated schoolbooks or from the Bible itself
sea captain knew of Asian religions
Chain of Memory
Homes Schools Churches Sunday Schools Bible and tract societies Colleges
Reading=Religious Skill
W.E.B. DuBois: Only 5% could read on the eve of the Civil War
King James Bible
In 9 out of 10 homes in the early republic The best-selling book and the most
Aimed for conversion as well as literacy “If there was an overriding purpose to
American colonial education, it was to nurture and sustain a Christian civilization” (70).
influential cultural artifact The book for reading in households and
schools well into the 19th century “a manual of law, literature, history, and
warfare, as well as a primer for reading and, of course, for religion” (62).
To be Christian was to be learned
John Calvin
People should be able to read scripture for themselves
And interpret for themselves Sovereignty of God Depravity of man
Anti-Catholicism was one of its key components Very limited knowledge about Judaism or
Mohammedanism (Islam) Only most sophisticated scholar or well-traveled
understanding it, applying it
Great Awakening
Mid 18th century Injected into the popular sermon a wider
emotional range, including overt appeals to the horrors of hell
17th century
Colonists passed a series of laws requiring apprentices and children to “attain at least so much, as to be able duly to read the Scriptures, and other good and profitable printed Books in the English tongue” (60).
Acquiring basic literacy became a religious duty
Tin Man Faith
To be Christian was to know and understand the Bible
New World Experiment
Depended on a population of educated people
African Americans and Indians
Literacy came slowly For African Americans—slave owners
feared for their slave to learn to read the Bible for themselves
Puritans
Reigning theology in the colonies Recognized two clerical offices: pastor
and teacher 4 part sermons: text, doctrine, reasons,
and uses Emphasized scripture—reading it,
Clergy became interpreters and teachers Printing press—gift from God Translators—saints Reading—means of grace
Teaching Reading
Act of nearly unparalleled piety
Sermons/Lectures
“The average weekly churchgoer in New England . . . listened to something like seven thousand sermons in a lifetime, totaling somewhere around fifteen thousand hours of concentrated listening” (63).
Equivalent to roughly 10 times the listening load of a four-year college student today
Other Books
While novels prospered in Europe, Americans preferred religious books
American Revolution
Children needed to read not only to be good Protestants but also to be good citizens—to free themselves from the tyranny of popes as well as kings.
Catechisms, prayer books, and devotionals
Basic Literacy=Religious Literacy
Americans acquired
Protestant worldview Biblical idioms
Limitations
Limited to Christianity—more specifically Protestantism
History of Religion in America and Its Effect on Education
Americans—People of the Book
Read and memorized, cited and recited, searched for meaning and quoted for authority
Myth
Once upon a time American education was secular
Wrong! From their beginning, common public schools were very much a part of an unofficial yet powerful Protestant establishment