The American Religious Experience

Running head: THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
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1THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
People belonging to the North and South America prior to the arrival of European
explorers are referred to as the Native American. Considering the size of both the continents and
the diverse landscapes, it is not a surprising phenomenon that the Native American culture can
vary drastically from group to group as well as tribe to tribe. Therefore, the Native American
religion is as well an extremely broad category. The essay aims to discuss on the same aspect,
the religious experience of Native American culture. The essay will discuss the religion of the
same through maintaining a specific focus on Christian history in the United States specifically
from the colonial times onwards.
The history of Christianity in America is not easy to trace since there are many details
regarding the topic. The two continents contain too many groups and too many individuals and
require great in-depth information. As it is commonly known, Native American religion
possesses and share a set of common features. However, when it comes to the history of
Christianity in the United States, it is certainly fascinating and lively. At the beginning of the
colonial years, medieval Europe had dreamed of Christendom. The dream was one civilisation
that would endorse unity by a single faith. However, the ideal of Christendom was devastated in
the sixteenth century. When the protestant reformers were breaking with papal authority in
Rome, the dream was shattered. Europe became an area with patchwork where each territory was
little Christian in its own along with a ruler who would determine the religion of the people. In
the meantime, several Europe powers were laying claims in order to lands across the Atlantic
Ocean. The territories involved were named New France, New Spain, New England, New
Sweden and New Netherlands. Therefore, two events had overlapped at the same time.
Turning to the later colonial period through various revolutions, there were several
significant events that helped in shaping American Christianity. At the end of the seventeenth

2THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
century, England experienced an ‘imperial awakening’. Looking from the English perspective,
closer management was necessary if the colonies were to grow into something that would be
more than ‘a meaningless string of feeble outposts’. One of the signs that the new management
was the society for the purpose of propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts of the states
(Koester, 2015).
The trickle of setters crossing the Appalachian Mountains after the revolutionary war
evolved to a flood. The Mississippi valley within a few years was able to organised as well as
settled into states. One of the most decisive events in history considered to be this specific
settlement. Since due to this particular event the United States stopped to be minor, struggling
ex-colony and transformed itself into a vast nation. A significant role was played in the
expansion of westward by the Christian religion. Christian was not only carried by them but also
recruited new Christians. Also, they convinced several nominal ones to recommit to the Christian
faith. Several churches were also built in order to build the faiths.
The next stage was slavery and civil war. Slavery is one of the central social that are
carved in the history of America and the story of Christianity in America. The Christian
institution was deeply embedded in American life that eventually took shape of a civil war in the
end. The civil war and slavery had religious dimensions from a great extent involving African
heritage, evangelical Protestantism and majorly slavery.
Approximately twenty-five million immigrants were migrating to the united states during
the years that were between civil war and the first world war. In the meantime of this duration,
the first wave of immigrants had come from the British Isles as well as later from Scandinavia
and Germany. Most of the Midwest and later the great plains were settled by the groups of