Matthias & The Second Great Awakening
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz in their book The Kingdom of Matthias write about a historical event that may not be well-known to most Americans. They tell the story of the self-proclaimed prophet Matthias and the "kingdom" he created based on his religious beliefs, related to the Second Great Awakening of religious fervor in American history. This nineteenth-century movement had numerous effects, including the creation of a variety of new cults and movements, such as that of them Mormons. Matthias lived in the first half of the nineteenth century as the United States was beginning to move away culturally from European roots and to build a uniquely American society. The book by Johnson and Wilentz details the nature of the man who led the movement, the nature of his followers, and the reaction of American society to his attempts to create a kingdom of his own on American soil. The authors note the nature of the religious atmosphere of the first half of the nineteenth century, the era that would become known as the Second Great Awakening, an era in which prophets such as Joseph Smith and Matthias would emerge and seek followers for their particular brand of Christian thought. The authors find that there was much activity developing not only in religious circles but in other areas of American life at this time as America began to assert herself as an independent and unique nation: These were the peak years of the market revolution that took the country from the fringe
. . .
n--and sometimes explaining more about himself:
Matthias was the Spirit of Truth--the male governing spirit, or God. He could enter any body or take on any shape, and had been doing so for thousands of years. His spirit had given life to all the plants and animals, and it remained in them (940.
This spirit was now in the body of Robert Matthews, he would explain, and had returned to earth because of the condition into which the world was sinking:
The state of things in 1832 was the result of eighteen hundred years of Christian misrule. At the center of Christian deviltry was a system of preaching and teaching that destroyed Truth. The Spirit of Truth, Matthias explained, was the spirit of male government. God wanted women to have none of it (95).
The Kingdom of Matthias was thus a completely patriarchal system in which power was passed down from father to son. Matthias gathered money from his followers and lived like a wealthy man, though many in the public were appalled by his appearance, with his lengthy beard and bizarre clothing and the sword he carried with him. He would eventually move to a house in Sing Sing, New York and would rename it Mount Zion, and he controlled his followers through the strength of his pro
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Robert Matthews, Elijah Pierson, Kingdom Matthias, Smith Matthias, Atlantic Monthly, John Baptist, David Koresh, Kingdom Interestingly, Johnson Wilentz, American Protestantism, american society, kingdom matthias, cult leaders, authors matthias, robert matthews, half nineteenth century, half nineteenth, nineteenth century, religious fervor, authors note, elijah pierson,
Approximate Word count = 1576
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
