Summary Of The Destroying Demon Of Debauchery By Burrows

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Burrows, in the chapter The Destroying Demon of Debauchery from his book Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, unravels the religious period of the early 1830s in NYC and its consequences on the social and moral development of its residents. Charles Grandison Finney, an American Presbyterian minister, not only introduced a new preaching style, but he also introduced the idea that Jesus was only going to come to the world by human action. With the support of the Manhattan-based Association of Gentlemen, the Kingdom of God in NY was undermining the old “predestination” theory and demanding more action from faithful followers to promote God’s grace and forgiveness.
Burrows acknowledges the clashing practices and beliefs between this new
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Due to his financial contribution to pious and benevolent causes, Burrows mentions him throughout the subsections of the chapter where we see the Finney’s follower fighting the different segments of “social immortality”. Interestingly, he leaves out the connection between religion and the abolitionist movement. In one of his most used sources, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery by Wyatt-Brown, the author of this book indicates that Tappan and his brother antislavery credos nourished from the evangelical Protestantism ideology. By trying to support causes that ought to be good, there is this new belief that man should be responsible for their own destiny. As Wyatt-Brown mentioned, “To abolitionist, slavery was a denial of civilization, while antislavery represented the highest aims of Christian life. To fulfill their mission to “civilize” a barbaric country, they employed the arresting but familiar language of the Bible, the terminology of sin, guilt, depravity, and divine retribution.” If this is extensively argued by his source, why didn’t he considered it or mentioned it when writing his chapter? By excluding this narrative, the chapter provides a limited narrative which focuses on New York immoral leisure …show more content…
Burrows left out an essential aspect of these groups. Whether wrong or right, they genuinely advocated for social reform as a way of dealing with NY social problems. For instance, Burrows presents that the FMRS determinedly reached out to prostitutes and its clients by praying and singing in front of the brothels. The group is portrayed as persistent and intolerant, yet his sources complicate our understanding of them by presenting the FMR society’s efforts to provide substantial financial support through aid and programs. According to Rosenberg in Religion and the Rise of the American City, the FMRS “…had become one of the city’s more active eleemosynary institutions. Its members and their paid agents visited tenement apartments, distributed food, and clothing, and sought jobs for the unemployed” (97). Burrow, by excluding this part of history, creates a more defined line between these groups differences. Under this subsection, I would have included the narratives were these groups had common ground. In a way, I think that New York did turn into religion to aid poverty, decrease unemployment, and help the city progress morally and

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