A Divinity for All Persuasions: Almanacs and Early American Religious Life (Religion in America)

Synopsis

The Almanac Was Early America's Most Affordable And Widespread Form Of Print. At Its Core, It Was A Calendar And An Astrologically-based Medical Handbook Punctuated By Poetry, Moral Axioms, And Amusing Anecdotes. A Divinity For All Persuasions Investigates The Religious Significance Of Early America's Most Ubiquitous Popular Genre. Other Than A Bible And Perhaps A Few Sermons And Schoolbooks, An Almanac Was The Only Printed Item Most People Owned Before 1820 And Almanac-makers Becameastute Arbiters Of Popular Opinion. Catering To Consumer Demand By Drawing On The Religious Works Of Their Day, Early American Almanac-makers Placed A Distilled Protestant Vernacular At The Center Of Their Publications. By Disseminating A Recognizable Collection Of Protestant Concepts Regarding God's Existence, Divine Revelation, The Human Condition, And The Afterlife, Almanacs Played An Unparalleled Role In Reinforcing British North America's Shared Religious Culture. Employing A Wealthof Archival Material, T.j. Tomlin Analyzes The Pan-protestant Sensibility Distributed Through The Almanacs' Pages Between 1730 And 1820. Influenced By Readers' Opinions And Printers' Pragmatism, The Religious Content Of Popular Print Supports A Fresh Interpretation Of Early American Cultural And Religious History. In Sharp Contrast To A Historiography Centered On Intra-protestant Competition, Tomlin Shows That Most Early Americans Relied On A Handful Of Protestant Essentials (the Bible, The Afterlife, And A Recognizably Moral Life) Rather Than Denominational Specifics To Define And Organize Their Religious Lives. A Divinity For All Persuasions Uncovers The Prevailing Religious Sensibility At The Center Of Early America's Most Popular Form Of Print.