Prof. Patrick N Allitt - American Religious History — Ttc -

Patrick N. Allitt, a historian whose teaching and writing emphasize the interplay between religion and American public life, frames religious history as central to understanding the United States — not as a private matter, but as a force shaping politics, culture, and institutions.

The single most important event of the 18th century, Allitt argues, was the Great Awakening. Led by firebrands like Jonathan Edwards ("Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God") and the itinerant George Whitefield, this revival transcended colonial boundaries. For the first time, a colonist from Georgia felt a spiritual kinship with a colonist from Massachusetts.

Crucially, Allitt draws the line from religious independence to political independence. He explains how sermons became political pamphlets and how the language of "slavery to sin" was easily converted into "slavery to the Crown." He also covers the often-ignored story of American Catholicism in Maryland and the unique legacy of William Penn’s "Holy Experiment" in Pennsylvania. TTC - Prof. Patrick N Allitt - American Religious History

One of Allitt’s most compelling early arguments is that America was not founded as a monolith, but as a messy collection of religious experiments.

While high school history textbooks often lump the colonists together, Allitt meticulously dissects the theological differences between the Puritans of New England, the Anglicans of Virginia, and the Quakers of Pennsylvania. He paints a picture of a "haven for hell-raisers"—a place where religious dissenters who couldn't fit into the rigid structures of European society came to build their own versions of utopia. Patrick N

Allitt argues that this fragmentation laid the groundwork for American federalism. The necessity of different sects learning to live side-by-side (often uneasily) forced the evolution of the separation of church and state—a concept born not out of atheism, but out of a desire to protect the purity of religious sects from government interference.

The course shines brightest when discussing the Second Great Awakening. This is where the American religious identity truly diverges from its European ancestors. Led by firebrands like Jonathan Edwards ("Sinners in

Allitt describes the "burned-over district" in upstate New York with a storyteller’s flair. This was the Silicon Valley of the 19th-century soul, birthing Mormonism, Adventism, and a feverish wave of evangelicalism. But the professor connects this spiritual fervor directly to social progress. He draws a straight line from the revival tents to the abolitionist movement, women’s suffrage, and temperance.

His central thesis here is profound: In America, religious enthusiasm almost always translates into social reform. The American notion of "manifest destiny" and the "city on a hill" has always been active, not passive. Believers felt compelled to remake the world.