The New Measures: A Theological History of Democratic Practice

Description

The New Measures: A Theological History of Democratic Practice brings thick cultural history to contemporary debates about religion and democracy. Combining histories of performance, space, institutions, and ideas, this 2007 book tells the story of the 'new measures' that circulated in the religious revivals of the 1820s and '30s and traces the role of these practices in the development of democratic culture in the United States. The book borrows resources from Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno to remember the new measures from an eschatological point of view. That eschatological perspective holds together close empirical studies and explicitly theological hopes. The book's attention to detail moves it beyond abstraction and caricature to a more materialist political theology. And its eschatological hope resists narratives of progress and decline to understand American democracy as both tangled in contradiction and caught up in redemption.

Ted A. Smith is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Preaching as well as the director of the Program in Theology and Practice at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School He is co-author, along with Thomas G. Long, of an upcoming book on the history of preaching in the United States.

'Democracy can be interpreted by abstract theories but it is lived and practiced by people in specific times and places. Ted Smith's The New Measures is a thought-provoking and fascinating analysis of specific practices of the intersection of American democracy and Christianity. Smith's text joins recent debates in theology and ethics about democracy but adds a historical depth and theoretical specificity that should change the nature as well as the purpose of just debates. And Smith's own theological ability to narrate our historical practices through an eschatological lens allows us to avoid the tired and unsatisfying progress and decline theories of both democracy and Christianity. Ted retrieves the venerable tradition of H. Richard Niebuhr, Reinhold Niebuhr and W. E. B. Dubois in combing history, theology and ethics to make democracy and Christianity still a task before us.' Rebecca Chopp, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, President, Colgate University 'Who could have dreamed that one could produce a book drawing such figures as the German philosopher Walter Benjamin and the nineteenth-century revivalist Charles Finney into a common arena within which the reader can encounter both the subtle insights of critical theory and the colorful details of American popular religion? Smith subjects American preaching - and by extension American religious culture - to a 'critique from within' by delving into tensions and ironies that expose hidden assumptions and subvert cultural certitudes but also hint at resolutions hovering just beyond our grasp. This is a genuinely original contribution to American history, theology, and critical thought.' E. Brooks Holifield, Charles Howard Candler Professor, Emory University 'In both method and message, The New Measures: A Theological History of Democratic Practice is a pivotal book in the field of homiletics. Ingeniously, in correlation with six aspects of contemporary social criticism, Smith both 'mortifies' and 'redeems' six fundamental characteristics of revival-influenced preaching in North America: effectiveness, novelty, decision, equality, celebrity, and illustration. From the ashes of critique Smith helps preachers discover profound ethical, theological, and homiletical wisdom for preaching today. A 'must-read' book. John S. McClure, Professor of Homiletics, Vanderbilt University Divinity School 'Smith offers a thoughtful reading of the revivalist techniques of the Second Great Awakening and their effects on democratic life.' The Christian Century