Author: Corrigan, John [1952- ]
Title: Business of the Heart: Religion and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century
Description: Berkeley, Univ. of California Press, (2002). orig.cloth. 23x15cm, xii,389 pp. Minor rubbing. VG. dustwrapper. ¶ Contents: Introduction: Religion, Emotion, and the Double Self; The Businessmen's Revival; The Anxiety of Boston at Mid-Century; Overexcitement, Economic Collapse, and the Regulation of Business; Emotion,Collective Performance, and Value; Emotional Religion and the Ministerial " Balance-Wheel"; Men, Women, and Emotion; Domestic Contracts; Clerks, Apprentices, and Boyculture; Prayerful Transactions; Emotion, Character, and Ethnicity; Epilogue: The Meaning of the Revival and Its Legacy; Appendices: History, Religion, and Emotion: A Historiographical Survey; Emotion as Heart, Blood, and Body; Emotion and the Common Sense Philosophy ["This vividly written narrative recovers the emotional experiences of individuals from a wide array of little-used sources including diaries, correspondence, public records, and other materials. From these sources, Corrigan discovers that for these Protestants, the expression of emotion was a matter of transactions. They saw emotion as a commodity, and conceptualized relations between people, and between individuals and God, as transactions of emotion governed by contract. Religion became a business relation with God, with prayer as its legal tender. Entering this relationship, they were conducting the "business of the heart." This innovative study shows that the revival--with its commodification of emotional experience--became an occasion for white Protestants to underscore differences between themselves and others..." - Publisher's description]

Keywords: History of Religion, Historical Boston, Sociology Christian, Nineteenth Century, United States, Protestant Business, Protestantism, Emotional Emotions, Christianity