Charles Grandison Finney was the foremost evangelist in the pre-Civil War United States. His revivals in the cities along the Erie Canal; his well-organized campaigns in Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and the British Isles; his prominent pastorate at New York's Broadway Tabernacle; and his teaching career at Oberlin College exemplify the evangelical spirit that swept the country following the Second Great Awakening. This lively biography by historian Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe tells the story of Finney's remarkable life and offers fresh insights into the nature of evangelicalism and the...

A moving and vivid account of what it meant to be a Puritan, this account draws on diaries, spiritual biographies, and devotional manuals to explore the daily and weekly ritual and discipline. The devotional movement was at the heart of Puritanism, and the spiritual pilgrimage was the soul's progress from birth to death to rebirth and eternal glory. Puritan worship brought together college student and illiterate farmer, giving coherence to the community.