The American Jeremiad in Twentieth Century Protestant Preaching

Team Members/Contributors

Marianne O. Rhebergen Princeton Theological Seminary Contact Me

About this dissertation fellowship

This dissertation studies sermons of the preaching ministers of The Riverside Church of New York City over the period 1930-1986 in order to understand how those sermons reflected awareness of changes taking place within American Protestantism in the twentieth century, particularly as those changes related to the role of mainline Protestantism in American culture. Using the lens of the American jeremiad as developed by Sacvan Bercovitch; twenty-five sermons of each preacher (Fosdick, McCracken, Campbell, and Coffin) are selected and analyzed rhetorically. An introductory chapter discusses methodological questions concerning the American jeremiad as a rhetorical genre and form of historical documentation, and the relationship of rhetoric and history. Separate chapters follow that place each preacher, his sermons and the congregation in historical and cultural context and proceed to analyze both the extent and the function of the jeremiadic form in the congregational preaching of these four figures. The dissertation concludes with a chapter arguing that social critique increasingly replaces social control as the primary function of the jeremiadic sermon as mainline Protestantism moves from the center to the periphery of cultural influence in twentieth century America.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
  A Lover's Quarrel: The American Jeremiad in Twentieth Century Mainline Protestant Preaching at the Riverside Church in the City of New York, 1930-1987 2002 Dissertation Marianne O. Rhebergen