The Practice of Pluralism: Congregational Life and Religious Diversity in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1730–1820 (review)

Mark Häberlein's tightly written book chronicles religion in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as it evolved from backcountry to maturity during the colonial, revolutionary, and early-republican periods. Five congregations—three German-speaking (German Reformed, Lutheran, and Moravian) and two English (Anglican and Presbyterian)—form the core of Häberlein's inquiry into this thriving inland town. The Practice of Pluralism is a revised version of Häberlein's dissertation written at Penn State University, and the author currently is professor of modern history at the University of Bamberg, Germany.

At first glance, The Practice of Pluralism appears most similar to works on diversity in the Midatlantic, such as Sally Schwartz's A Mixed Multitude: The Struggle for Toleration in Colonial Pennsylvania (New York, 1989) or Aaron Spencer Fogleman's recent counterargument in Jesus Is Female: Moravians and Radical Religion in Early America (Philadelphia, 2007). But Häberlein's theme—that the "quest for order and stability" (p. 12) dominated religious life during the ninety-year period of his study—puts his book in a different category. According to Häberlein, challenges to congregational life included immigrants who needed to adjust, questions about lay authority, and disagreements over church order, but by the late-eighteenth century stability reigned in the form of impressive buildings, charters of incorporation, and lengthy pastorates. Thus, the closest relatives to Häberlein may be After the Backcountry: Rural Life in the Great Valley of Virginia, 1800–1900 by Kenneth E. Koons and Warren R. Hofstra (Knoxville, 2000), which tracks maturity in another part of Greater Pennsylvania, and Richard L. Bushman's The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (New York, 1992), a discussion of the quest for improvement.

One of the book's major strengths is its research. Häberlein has meticulously assembled biographic and economic data on a large portion of the pastors, deacons, elders, vestrymen, and other lay leaders in Lancaster during this period. The story slows during these lengthy passages, but the amount of evidence is impressive.

Another strength is the conclusion, which demonstrates the author's analytical ability as he summarizes the evidence and makes interesting points about religion in Lancaster. Häberlein points out, for example, that the diverse community of Christians in Lancaster practiced tolerance, although probably not self-consciously. Also, Continental Pietism provided Germans in Lancaster with both religion of the heart and ecclesiastical order, which explains why early-nineteenth-century revivalism bypassed them. Because lay influence was present in the beginning, Lancaster had no triumphant, democratic, growing-lay-influence narrative. Likewise, church attendance remained high throughout the period of study, removing any suggestions of secularization. In sum, postrevolutionary Lancaster lacked the "turmoil, upheaval, and dramatic change" (p. 239) of many other communities, because it achieved stability and maturity prior to independence. Häberlein suggests that religious studies have overemphasized communities that experienced rapid change, especially involving evangelicalism; instead, he believes that places "outside the evangelical mainstream" (p. 243), like Lancaster and similar Pennsylvania communities (Germantown, Reading, and York), which began with diversity, may be better models than New England for the emerging cities in the nineteenth-century Midwest. Although the book's theme of stability and maturity might be a bit obvious, the author's subthemes are not and particularly demonstrate his skill as a historian. This excellent book adds much to the understanding of religion in the early Midatlantic and the maturation of backcountry American society.