Wheat and tares: the liberal encounter with Puritan violence -- From sentimentality to social reform: the emergence of radical Christian liberalism -- The gospel, the declaration, and the divine child: theology and literature of ultra reform -- Looking for victims: violence and theology in temperance narratives -- Through the blood-stained gate: violence, birth, and the Imago Dei in fugitive slave narratives -- Epics of ambivalence: nonviolent power in Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery novels -- Violent messiahs: radical Christian liberals and the civil war
Summary
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
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-279) and index
