Author: Kirk Mariner

Publisher:

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 734

ISBN-13: 9781735995700

The Eastern Shore of Virginia-detached from and sometimes forgotten by the rest of the state, a pleasant rural place where life is noticeably slower and more relaxed, though the distance to the great cities of the Northeast is not great. Quaint country churches dot the landscape and dominate the view of its many villages, some of them erected when the Old Dominion was still a colony of England.This book is the story of religion on the Eastern Shore. Here in microcosm are many of the same forces and movements that molded the religion of the entire nation: the Colonial establishment, the camp meetings and revivals of the Second Great Awakening, the bitter battle over slavery, the emergence of the black churches, the Holiness movement, pentacostalism, and the rich diversity of the present scene right up to 1978. Among the well-known figures who are part of this pageant are Francis Makemie, founder of the first American presbytery, Francis Asbury, the pioneer Methodist bishop, James Cannon, Jr., the controversial temperance leader and power in Virginia politics. These and a host of colorful local characters come alive in these pages.As the title suggests, it was primarily the revivalistic religions that won the Eastern Shore, and foremost among them the Methodists. The Shore is, in fact, unusual is being one of the few areas in the nation where Methodism predominates.Revival's Children is really two books in one. The first part is the narrative of the founding and unfolding of Christianity on the peninsula. The second is a catalog of every religious congregation known to have existed on the Shore, Christian and Jewish, Protestant and Catholic, black and white, since 1624. Over 300 separate congregations are traced individually, and located on detailed maps.