God and mammon - Mark A Noll

This collection of all new essays offers a close look at the connections between American Protestants and money in the Antebellum period. During the first decades of the new American nation, money was everywhere on the minds of the church leaders and many of their followers. Economic questions were important for religious self-definition, they figured regularly in preaching and pamphleteering, and they contributed greatly to perceptions of morality both public andprivate. In fact, money was always a religious question. For this reason, argue the authors of these essays, it is impossible to understand broader cultural developments of the period - including political developments - without considering religion and economics together. Taken together, theessays provide essential background to an issue that continues to loom large and generate controversy in the Protestant community today.