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Archibald Alexander: An Unlikely Leader Who Helped Shape American Religion

 Archibald Alexander: An Unlikely Leader Who Helped Shape American Religion When Archibald Alexander arrived in Virginia in 1776 as a teenage orphan looking to further his ministerial studies, few could have predicted the prominent leadership roles he would come to hold in American religious life. [1] Yet through his influential writings, distinguished academic career, and model Christian character, Alexander left an indelible mark on the development of American theology and denominational growth in the early 19th century. [2] In retrospect, Alexander’s rise to prominence seems improbable. Orphaned at age nine, he spent much of his childhood working manual labor jobs to get by, leaving little time for formal education. [3] Though he managed to pick up Latin and Greek grammar later in his youth, it was not until age 20, when a local minister took Alexander under his wing, that he began serious theological training. [4] Alexander made up for his late start with remarkable speed. He
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The Role of Methodism in Discussions of Slavery and Secession in the Antebellum Period

  In the decades leading up to the Civil War, American Christianity grappled intensely with the moral status of slavery. Christian denominations increasingly fractured over whether to condemn or defend the peculiar institution. The Methodist Episcopal Church provides an illuminating example of these debates. From its origins, Methodism held an antislavery position, but this weakened over time as it expanded in the slaveholding South. By the 1850s, tensions erupted in calls for separation by Southerners. Examining Methodist discourse on slavery and secession reveals how religion shaped conceptions of slavery and sectionalism in the antebellum period.   Early Methodism officially opposed slavery. John Wesley, Methodism's founder, called it "execrable sum of all villainies," and American Methodists largely shared this view. [1] As Methodists proselytized across the new nation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, they "bore public testimony against slavery&quo
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