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  • Unity in Christ and Country: American Presbyterians in the Revolutionary Era, 1758–1801by William Harrison Taylor
  • Tammy K. Byron
Unity in Christ and Country: American Presbyterians in the Revolutionary Era, 1758–1801. By William Harrison Taylor. Religion and American Culture. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2017. Pp. xii, 186. $49.95, ISBN 978-0-8173-1945-8.)

By 1758, American Christians were seeking a spiritual rationale for the French and Indian War that had been plaguing the colonies since 1756. American Presbyterians concluded that the war was a sign of God's displeasure with the church's recent schism; subsequently, the Presbyterians sought not only the reunification of their church but also the fostering of inter-denominational unity for the good of Christendom and the nation. In Unity in Christ and Country: American Presbyterians in the Revolutionary Era, 1758–1801, William Harrison Taylor examines their efforts, concluding that rather than achieving long-term church and national unity, the Presbyterians' late-eighteenth-century efforts actually increased religious division and national sectionalism by the turn of the century.

Taylor begins by examining the Presbyterian reunion in 1758 and the Presbyterians' ensuing efforts to cultivate Christendom by encouraging cooperation among Christian denominations. However, in addition to facing continuous internal conflict, Presbyterians found that interdenominational and political enmities complicated Christian cooperation between the mid-1750s and mid-1760s. Despite this struggle, Christians increasingly came together to face Great Britain's threat to American political liberties by the Revolutionary period. As they did so, their focus naturally became more political than religious, and by the end of the war, Presbyterians struggled to shift inter-denominational cooperation back to the goal of uniting Christendom. Taylor shows that the success of these interdenominational efforts varied by region and were more successful in the North than in the South. In the North, Presbyterian churches found similarly minded denominations, such as the Congregationalists, who shared their desire to create the Plan of Union of 1801 for the good of Christendom and the nation. However, southern churches, Taylor argues, suffered from a deficiency of regular leadership and an emphasis on local concerns that weakened southern churches' connections not only to other churches but also to the Presbyterian Church's national body. As a result, more Presbyterians came to believe that their needs could be better met by separating from the national church. Thus, Taylor shows, while Presbyterians succeeded in achieving their goal of community with other Christian denominations, they also inadvertently fostered division and sectionalism, leading southern members to draw away from a church that they believed could not meet their needs.

While much literature exists on the history of late-eighteenth-century Christianity, Taylor's work adds to this scholarship by specifically examining the Presbyterian effort to foster Christian unity during this era and demonstrates how that effort resulted in fracturing both the church and American national unity. Much of the research on American sectionalism focuses on political clashes and the slavery debate as exacerbating sectionalism; Taylor, however, adds a new dimension to this historiography by illustrating the implications of the Presbyterians' religious divisions on Presbyterians in the southern states. [End Page 424]

A significant part of the author's success is rooted in his use of a multitude of relevant sources, including lectures, sermons, and personal correspondence of leading Presbyterians. Taylor also references hymnals, books of poetry, and official Presbyterian Church records, such as the minutes of the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly and those of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. Moreover, his book includes a strong survey of the secondary literature relating to late-eighteenth-century Presbyterian and political history.

Taylor's work is also highly readable and understandable, due in large part to its clear and logical organization. Its five chapters are ordered chronologically, with the last two chapters organized by both period and region. The work is also peppered with interesting, relevant quotations from primary sources, which draw the reader into the period while supporting the thesis. Thus, both the layperson and the scholar will find Taylor's argument convincing and easy to follow.

Tammy K. Byron
Dalton State College

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