Insomnia, Print Culture, the Bebbington Quadrilateral, and Conceived in Doubt at the ASCH

One of the downsides of attending conferences for me is that I almost always have insomnia. From my days as a graduate student to the present, I have grown accustomed to reading, writing, and even sleeping with a steady flow of noise. It may be hard to believe, but I am most productive when I work at home with my children playing somewhere in the house, my wife on the phone or talking with my boys, and even when the television is on in the background. My friends at graduate school did not believe me when I told them that I pored through monographs with the television on and my children playing in the same room until they heard testimony to this fact from my wife and kids. I even require noise while sleeping. Since the beginning of my seventeen-year marriage, I have fallen asleep to the ambient sounds of a noisemaker that plays throughout the night. My lived experience of operating amidst constant clamor is contrasted when I am away from home. When I attend conferences, and stay in a hotel, I suddenly experience nearly complete silence, and I find it eerie. This kind of silence strikes my senses as unnatural and almost inevitably leads to insomnia for me throughout my time at the conference. After three or four days of functioning on only a few hours of sleep, I am desperate to return to the comfort of my home where there is more steady pattern of familiar sounds.

I awoke from about two hours of sleep on Friday, feeling like a zombie as I headed to breakfast with my fellow panelists before our 8:30am-10:00am session on "Printing Evangelicalisms: Evangelical Book Culture across Three Centuries," where I gave my paper on "The Role of Samuel Kneeland and Daniel Henchman as Jonathan Edwards's Chief Printer and Publisher at Boston." I think that all of the panelists, including myself, were shocked that the room was packed with people at such an early time in the morning. My fellow panelists Keith Grant and Daniel Vaca gave excellent papers, and I was particularly pleased with Catherine Brekus's insightful comments as the respondent. It was also nice to meet some of the people in the audience, including Rhys Bezzant, who has an exciting new book out on Jonathan Edwards and the Church, published by Oxford University Press.

After "Printing Evangelicalisms," I attended the 10:30am session, "Evangelicalism in Modern Britain Turns-Five: Re-Examining David Bebbington's 'Quadrilateral' Thesis." My friend Charlie Phillips and I put this panel together and sponsored the session. The papers by Kelly Elliott, Tommy Kidd, and Amanda Porterfield exceeded my expectation in their thoughtful analysis of Bebbington's book. I was equally impressed with Bebbington's response to each of the papers. He seems to thrive in these kinds of settings.

The other interesting session that I attended was on "Doubting the Democratization Thesis: A Roundtable Discussion of Amanda Porterfield's Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation." After hearing the glowing reviews of Michael Altman, James Byrd, and Kathryn Gin Lum, I awoke from my catatonic sleepless state when Mark Noll took the lectern and broke the series of compliments by offering a respectful, but sharp criticism of Amanda's book. Even though Mark commended Conceived in Doubt at the end of his paper, I was surprised at the extent to which he excoriated her thesis. I thought that Amanda's response throughout the whole of the session, and even with regard to Mark's comments, was extremely gracious, demonstrating a model on how scholars should respond in these kinds of situations.

After this final session, I ate dinner with the Bebbington panelists at Smith and Wollensky, which UTC and the Maclellan Foundation sponsored as a way of thanking the contributors.

Now that I have had one hour and a half of sleep, perhaps I will go exercise. I wonder if the hotel gym is open at 2:30am.

America as "Conceived in Doubt"

Last night Amanda Porterfield, Robert A. Spivey Professor of Religion at Florida State University, wrapped up our series on religion and politics for the LeRoy Martin Distinguished Lecture Series at UTC. It was a very interesting lecture that was based on her most recent book, Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation.

Porterfield has analyzed colonial American history and determined that much of the nation's Christian heritage was forged in skepticism. Throughout her lecture, she demonstrated a number of ironical twists in American religious history. Jefferson, for instance, although raised as an Anglican, grew suspicious of organized, elite religion. Furthermore, Jefferson--tarnished as an atheist by many American Christians--was ironically supported by evangelicals within the burgeoning Methodist and Baptist denominations. Even more intriguing, she posited that the best-selling pamphlet, The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine, ironically led to the galvanization of evangelicalism in America. Ministers outraged by the heterodoxy of the pamphlet doubled their efforts to preach to the masses about the need to embrace orthodoxy and reject the deism espoused by Paine and other iconoclasts. But even here, in this push to preach the gospel, Porterfield shows the presence of doubt and skepticism. The revivalists who urged Americans to have a conversion experiences embraced the sentiments of doubt in order to help guide their converts to an authentic, born-again experience. The presence of doubt within a potential convert was viewed by many evangelical preachers as a necessary part of the process that led to complete confidence in one's eternal state. All in all, a very intellectually stimulating lecture.

Amanda Porterfield at UTC

Amanda Porterfield, Robert A. Spivey Professor of Religion at Florida State University, will be giving the next LeRoy Martin Distinguished Lecture on "Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the Early American Nation" at UTC on Thursday, November 8 at 5pm in the UC Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public. If you are interested in more information on the lecture, please click here.

Porterfield's lecture comes out of her recent book, Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation (University of Chicago Press, 2012). This will be the last lecture under the fall theme of "Religion in Politics." If you are in the Chattanooga area on November 8, please join us for refreshments and a good lecture.

D. G. Hart at UTC

Today (September 27), D. G. Hart will be speaking at UTC on the topic: "What Makes the Religious Right Different from Political Islam?" Daryl is Visiting Professor of History at Hillsdale College, and is the first LeRoy Martin Distinguished Lecturer of the academic year. His talk today comes out of his new book, From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of  American Conservativism. His lecture should spark some interesting discussion. The public is invited, and so if you are nearby please feel free to join us. More information on the lecture series, including times and parking can be found here.

The overall theme for the fall's lecture series is religion and politics. After Daryl, John Fea will be speaking on October 9 on "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?," which is based on his recent book. After Fea, Amanda Porterfield will be speaking on "Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation," which is also a topic stemming from a recent book. I'm excited that UTC will be hosting these distinguished scholars.

Fall 2012 LeRoy Martin Distinguished Lecturers at UTC

We already have the Fall 2012 speakers lined up for the LeRoy Martin Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

The Fall 2012 theme will relate to religion and politics in light of it being a presidential election year. Here are the lecturers:




D.G. Hart, Thursday, September 27, 2012 on his new book, From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservativism (Eerdmans, 2011)











John Fea, Tuesday, October 9, 2012 on his new book, Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction (Westminster John Knox, 2011)








Amanda Porterfield, Thursday, November 8, 2012 on her upcoming book, Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation (University of Chicago, 2011)

The lectures are free and open to the public. Further information will be posted on the philosophy and religion website