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Graham FINAL 8 1 2022 with cert.pdf (785.27 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Intersection of American Exceptionalism and Protestant Christianity: Distinction, Special Status, and Mission in the Early Republic

Graham, Ty J.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7560-8091
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1659365986960907

Abstract Details

2022, Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, Department of Humanities.
American exceptionalism formed out of and alongside Protestant Christianity in the early republic. Protestants created a nexus of symbols, rhetoric, and themes within their religious dialogue that facilitated the ideological development of American exceptionalism. Foundational to both Protestant Christian discourse and exceptionalist perception was a belief in group distinction, the special status, or chosenness of people and place, and mission-oriented motivation. This research draws parallels between religious thinkers including John Winthrop, Jonathan Edwards, Timothy Dwight IV, Lyman Beecher, Horace Bushnell, and Charles Grandison Finney, alongside influential politicians, authors, and journalists such as Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, David Humphreys, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Charles Levin Lewis, and George Bancroft. The language used by these Protestant leaders and secular, political actors during the late-eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries reveals the rhetorical, symbolic, and thematic intersection between Protestant Christianity and American exceptionalism.
Martha Pallante, PhD (Advisor)
Amy Fluker, PhD (Committee Member)
Brian Bonhomme, PhD (Committee Member)
75 p.
American History; Religious History
Protestantism; Christianity; American Exceptionalism; Early Republic

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Graham, T. J. (2022). The Intersection of American Exceptionalism and Protestant Christianity: Distinction, Special Status, and Mission in the Early Republic [Master's thesis, Youngstown State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1659365986960907

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Graham, Ty. The Intersection of American Exceptionalism and Protestant Christianity: Distinction, Special Status, and Mission in the Early Republic. 2022. Youngstown State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1659365986960907.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Graham, Ty. "The Intersection of American Exceptionalism and Protestant Christianity: Distinction, Special Status, and Mission in the Early Republic." Master's thesis, Youngstown State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1659365986960907

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ysu1659365986960907
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© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Youngstown State University and OhioLINK.