Just a great post, Text. It is long-ish, and that may mean that a few don't make it all the way through, but I'm glad you came along to set the record straight.
I'm curious about one thing you said--when you posited that evangelical Christianity has its genesis as a reaction to enlightenment thought, deism and Modernity. Although I'd never thought of that formulation, it has the ring of truth--and for years I've been teaching my students in Am. Lit. Hist. that the theological spiritualism of Emerson and Thoreau was a reaction to the rationalism of enlightenment thinkers like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. (not to mention Charles Brockden Brown, whose reaction comes earlier but is no less spiritual).
Which leads me to a question of definition, because as you say "evangelical" Christianity seems to me not only to be a reaction to modernity but also a product of it. I fully admit that I don't know much about the history and I'm hoping you can set me straight--but it seems to me that although the Calvinists, Congregationalists, Quakers and their ilk who were major driving forces behind the abolition of Slavery in America may have shared some evangelical qualities, that they were not "Evangelical with a capital 'E'" in the way you describe. Certainly they were not as interested in a biblical life, if I'm understanding how that works correctly.
So--if Evangelicals are reacting to the enlightenment, who are their earliest progenitors? If, as I suspect, (though do set me straight if I'm wrong) their history begins in the 19th century, then why such a long time after the enlightenment?
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