The Word in the World
Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789-1880
Candy Gunther Brown
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 12/2005
Pages: 352
Subject: Religion
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9780807863336
DESCRIPTION
Although scholars usually claim that religious publishing fell prey to the secularizing engines of commodification, Brown argues that evangelicals knew what they were doing by adopting a range of strategies, including the use of popular narratives and beautiful packaging. An informal canon of texts emerged in the nineteenth century, consisting of sermons, histories, memoirs, novels, gift books, Sunday school libraries, periodicals, and hymnals.
Looking beyond the uses of texts in religious conversion, Brown examines how textual practices have transmitted cultural values both within evangelical communities and across a larger American cultural milieu. An epilogue conveys crucial insights into twenty-first-century ties between religion and the media.