Janet Moore Lindman is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Rowan University. This interview is based on her new book, A Vivifying Spirit: Quaker Practice and Reform in Antebellum America (Penn State University Press, 2022).
JF: What led you to write A Vivifying Spirit?
JL: My interest in the history of practical religion led to me to study the Religious Society of Friends. Practical religion, (also called lived religion), encompasses all aspects of spirituality. My book shows how Friends enacted their faith through multivalent expressions: worship, prayer, contemplation, silence, reading, writing, conversing, etc. In addition, it demonstrates how change from within the Society accompanied the transformations occurring in the antebellum era, including evangelical religion, class formation, print culture, and progressive reform. Schism and division led to the creation of new forms of Quakerism: Hicksite, Orthodox, Gurneyite, Wilburite and Progressive. American Friends pursued varied forms of a vital religiosity that resulted in the increasing complexity of Quakerism by the mid-nineteenth century.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument of A Vivifying Spirit?
JL: American Quakerism was transformed both from within and without during the antebellum era. Multiple schisms introduced new forms of piety as Friends integrated their faith into dominant Protestantism, which, in turn, reformulated the doctrine and practice of American Friends.
JF: Why do we need to read A Vivifying Spirit?
JL: Friends followed a different historical trajectory than other Protestants. Their radical theology encompassed not only pacifism but endorsed female ministers and leaders as well as spiritual equality with people of color. Their stance on slavery, Indigenous sovereignty, women’s rights, etc., preceded other activists by several decades. Even though Quakers are a small denomination, they have had a capacious impact on American culture, particularly during the antebellum era. Their dominance and leadership in reform activism (e.g., abolitionism) demonstrates how religious principles impacted the social and political course of American history during the early nineteenth century.
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
JL: I have been fascinated by history since I was a child; when we went on vacation, I made my parents stop at every historic marker so I could find out what occurred there. I wanted to know what happened, why it happened, who was involved, what the impact was, what it meant, etc., all the questions that drive historians. My professional interest in the field occurred in college when I realized I might be able to make a living studying American history.
JF: What is your next project?
JL: My next project is an examination of gender and transatlantic Protestantism during the long eighteenth century.
JF: Thanks, Janet!