Identifying the Image of God: Radical Christians and Nonviolent Power in the Antebellum United States (Religion in America)

Between 1820 and 1860, American social reformers invited all people to identify God's image in the victims of war, slavery, and addiction. Identifying the Image of God traces the theme of identification--and its liberal Christian roots--through the literature of social reform, focusing on sentimental novels, temperance tales, and slave narratives, and invites contemporary activists to revive the "politics of identification." Contents......Page 11 Introduction: The Power of Identification......Page 15 1. Wheat and Tares: The Liberal Encounter with Puritan Violence......Page 23 2. From Sentimentality to Social Reform: The Emergence of Radical Christian Liberalism......Page 58 3. The Gospel, the Declaration, and the Divine Child: Theology and Literature of Ultra Reform......Page 78 4. Looking for Victims: Violence and Theology in Temperance Narratives......Page 114 5. Through the Blood-Stained Gate: Violence, Birth, and the Imago Dei in Fugitive Slave Narratives......Page 139 6. Epics of Ambivalence: Nonviolent Power in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Antislavery Novels......Page 169 7. Violent Messiahs: Radical Christian Liberals and the Civil War......Page 186 Conclusion: Liberal Irony......Page 227 Notes......Page 231 Bibliography......Page 269 A......Page 293 C......Page 294 F......Page 296 G......Page 297 K......Page 298 M......Page 299 N......Page 300 Q......Page 301 S......Page 302 U......Page 304 W......Page 305 Z......Page 306

In the mid-19th century, social reformers in America encouraged the country's citizens to identify with the victims of war, slavery, and addiction by suggesting that the image of God was present in the victims of violence. McKanan (theology, St. John's U. and the College of St. Benedict, Minnesota) examines the literature of social reform, in particular the sentimental novels, temperance tales, and fugitive slave narratives, and the role they played in the politics of identification. He suggests that today's social activists might find useful knowledge and strategies in the work of their antebellum predecessors. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

Between 1820 and 1860, American social reformers pioneered a 'politics of identification' which portrayed minority and socially excluded groups as both physically vunerable and socially related. This text traces the theme of identification through the literature of social reform In a famous scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96) describes the dilemma faced by an Ohio senator when, days after voting for the Fugitive Slave Act, he encounters a fugitive mother and child at his own doorstep.