Strange Jeremiahs: civil religion and the literary imaginations of Jonathan Edwards, Herman Melville, and W.E.B. Du Bois

Description

The beginning of the American Revolution in the conversion of Northampton. The travail of the Puritan covenant -- Original sin: human limitations and the openness of community -- God is no respecter of persons: the ordinary, lowly, and infantile nature of the revival -- The "strange revolution" and the aesthetics of grace -- The second great awakening, the national period, and Melville's American destiny. Pierre; or, The Ambiguities and the formation of the American dilemma -- A revolutionary marriage deferred -- The mystery of Melville's darkwoman -- From "self" to "soul": W.E.B. Du Bois's critical understanding of the ideals of liberal democracy in the new world. Strange Jeremiah: civil religion and the public intellectual -- Strivings and original sin: the unlovely, plural American soul -- The talented tenth and colonizing heroes -- Du Bois's aesthetic of beauty in the new world -- The irony of the American self.;Stewart studies the writings of three American authors who all helped define civil religion through their expressions of the tradition of the jeremiad, or prophetic judgment of a people for backsliding from their destiny. The beginning of the American Revolution in the conversion of Northampton. The travail of the Puritan covenant -- Original sin: human limitations and the openness of community -- God is no respecter of persons: the ordinary, lowly, and infantile nature of the revival -- The "strange revolution" and the aesthetics of grace -- The second great awakening, the national period, and Melville's American destiny. Pierre or, The Ambiguities and the formation of the American dilemma -- A revolutionary marriage deferred -- The mystery of Melville's darkwoman -- From "self" to "soul": W.E.B. Du Bois's critical understanding of the ideals of liberal democracy in the new world. Strange Jeremiah: civil religion and the public intellectual -- Strivings and original sin: the unlovely, plural American soul -- The talented tenth and colonizing heroes -- Du Bois's aesthetic of beauty in the new world -- The irony of the American self.