Matthias By Paul E. Johnson And Sean Wilentz: The Kingdom Of Matthias

"The Kingdom of Matthias" by historians Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz examines one of the first scandals in American history. The book takes place in a time when a majority of people sought after a passionate religion. The authors wonderfully organized the book, splitting it into 4 large sections. The first and second sections were written purely to introduce the reader to Elijah Pierson and Robert Matthews, the men who started the Kingdom (or cult); the third and fourth concern the Kingdom (how it functioned, and it 's members) and how it failed. In these chapters, the reader slowly becomes involved with the characters as the authors illustrate a story which many had forgot.

In chapter seven, “The Land That God Forgot,” the author Wes Moore talks about different paths and how it influences the lives of both Weses. He clearly provided an example of a different course the other Wes took and how this worked out for him. The other Wes found Cheryl, his third and fourth children’s mother, unconscious on the couch from a drug overdose. He discovers that she has been addicted to drugs and was even using drugs during her pregnancy.

Award-winning journalist, Lee Strobel wrote The Case for Christ to retrace and enlarge his journey toward becoming a Christian. Strobel once atheist, and now Christian, shares how he began to look upon the Bible and God. As an atheist, Strobel lived the life of selfishness and only worried to please himself. When his wife began to go to church he wasn’t very pleased until after he saw the positive and attractive change in her. This is the start of his curiosity and investigation about Christianity. He wanted to understand what changed her like this. He wanted to relate with his wife so he decided to study about this and attend church services with her. Strobel began his journey and interviewed thirteen leading scholars who defended their views concerning the historical reliability of the New Testament. Strobel splits the case for Christ into three basic sections: Examining the Record, Analyzing Jesus, and Researching the Resurrection.

The Kingdom of Matthias, written by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, examines the story of the self proclaimed prophet Matthias, formerly known as Robert Matthews. They tell the story of how Matthias built his kingdom based on his religious beliefs related to the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening was a religious movement that took place during the early nineteenth century. During this time period women played the role as the caregivers who stayed at home with the children while their husbands were out working. However, it wasn’t until the Second Great Awakening that women began to play a more dominant role in society, especially in the church. Matthias was one of the main people who was directly impacted by the effects of the Second Great Awakening and the power it gave to women. Throughout Matthias’ life he had numerous troubles with women and this continued to show throughout the reign of his kingdom. Johnson and Wilentz saw that the empowerment of women in the Second Great Awakening was a factor in the demise of Matthias’ demise Kingdom. Matthias refuses the ideas of the Second Great Awakening by making sure that women in his kingdom are subordinate and condemns those who are not. [inserts thesis statement]

In essence, Matthias was an infamous misogynous. Matthias was a religious man as he moved from one denomination to the next, however with this being said it showed no effect on how he treated women. “Degenerated into a nightmare of wife-beating and child abuse.”(Johnson and Wilentz) These “nightmares” changed his attitude in his adult life into the way he ruled his kingdom. In one of his sermons Matthias said that “Women is the cap sheaf of abomination of desolation – full of deviltry”, and “All women are not obedient, had better become so soon as possible, and let the wicked spirit depart, and become vessels of truth.” (Johnson and Wilentz). Matthias is clearly denouncing the progression of women that was being made in the Nineteenth century and how he saw women in the group he had made. To add more to Matthias’ beliefs, he only saw women as items for sexual actions and for them to fulfill their positions as wives for cooking, washing, and taking

Matthias based his pseudo religion on principles and standards he was raised with, much of his “teachings” reflect family values that he learned growing up, he saw the changes in people’s lives in the city, and fought to keep it traditional and conservative. He wanted everything to be done the way he was taught and the world to know the truth as he saw it, and live the way he was directed, essentially he wanted tradition to overshadow innovation. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Matthias’ plans were deemed to fail, but they did have their mere moment of victory, the kingdom followed these new rules set by Matthias, consenting open marriages, utilizing the vulnerability of people, naked bathing, but his greater cause and message was he wanted his followers to see was that his kingdom was essentially based on the concepts of prosperity, optimism, tolerance, and freedom. This, one may believe, is the true reason his religion prospered, not because it was something new and different, but because it was a path back home, a reconnection of their roots and where they came from and the

This surge of spiritual awakening brought some to question religion, specifically Christianity. In the years before the “Kingdom”, Robert Matthews “began putting it about that he was no Christian at all…He was in actuality, a prophesying Hebrew.”(Johnson, 64). This marked the beginning of his decent into the cult he called ‘The Kingdom of Matthias’. The Second Great Awakening marked a constitutional conversion of American religion. Many early groups put emphasis on the corruption of human beings, believing they could be saved only through the grace of God. These groups formed as instruments of reform, in reaction to urban growth and industrialization. However, it also put emphasis on the human ability to better their positions, thus creating amore optimistic view of humans and the human condition. Robert Matthews, now called Matthias, delivered a number of sermons regarding the path to forgiveness and just how he, being Matthias, would cast judgment upon all. “In short, Matthias would damn the enemies of the Jews – above all, the meek Christian devils and their disobedient women.” (Johnson,

In the 1800s a Market Revolution began, changing the way in which America operated and in the midst of all that was a Second Great Awakening, causing people to once again, question their religious beliefs and practices. Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz tell the story of Robert Matthews, or the Prophet Matthias and his followers. Matthias had an unconventional childhood, he became an orphan at a young age and was raised by church elders. He worked under one of the elders to learn the carpenter’s craft. He easily found work but had trouble keeping it because he was always preaching at his fellow workers about their sinful ways. Matthias was eager to make good but continually fell into misfortunes, “which led him on a prolonged and erratic religious journey” (49). The Kingdom of Matthias gained and lost members, had changes in beliefs, and was full of ever changing marriages. Although looking back on it now, Matthias’s messages and beliefs seem almost laughable, but at they time his followers found his message, ministry, and lifestyle very compelling.

As his life began, Robert Matthews seemed to have had the makings of a radical, religious man. In 1788, he was born into the religious New England Scottish town of Colia, where his family belonged to a Scottish Presbyterian sect known as the Anti-Burgher Secession Church. As a young boy, he began with odd visions and dreams that he claimed where to be from God, “In 1835, an enterprising Manhattan journalist disclosed that, as a boy, Robert Matthews had his own conversations with supernatural spirits and impressed his friends with feats of clairvoyance (56).”

To Stoddard, the idea of “fostering conversions was more important than discovering a perfect church order, and in that attitude he blazed the way for the most influential practice in American religious history: he was the first American to make periodic revivals a centerpiece of his ministry” . Every decade his congregation would experience an “awakening” in which many people were moved spiritually and often lead to conversion. Some of these revivals even made it past Northampton and into the neighboring communities, directly impacting young Edwards and his family, for Edwards’s father rejected the half-way covenant but endorsed revival. These disagreements divided his family and remained unresolved for decades .

Nathan Hatch compares the Second Great Awakening to the Jacksonian era. He states that the men trying to persuade other people to join their religion was like tyrants trying to get people to follow them. That just like the beginning stages of the revolution, this was a time of power struggle for religious leaders. Hatch writes ‘These movements

One of the many things that puzzle people even today; is how Jesus was portrayed and how he became a part of history throughout the centuries. Fortunately, within the book Jesus Through the Centuries, written by Jaroslav Pelikan, readers are able to get a sense of what societies viewed Jesus as and how he was/is important to many aspects of the world such as; the political, social, and cultural impact he had left. As Pelikan discusses this very topic and theme in his book, we see how there’s a connection between his audience in this book and Jesus’s are closely similar. When he got his motivation to write about Jesus through the Centuries, Jaroslav had an open audience, which was intended for anyone of all ages, races, and beliefs to read

The author's main purpose for writing A Myth of a Christian Nation is to explain how the world has claimed to be founded on christian principles but has neglected to see that this is a lie that we as christians and people in society have told ourselves to make it seem like we are “ one nation under God”. Boyd also focuses in on and introducing our role in the kingdom of God vs the kingdom of the world and our role in politics and society.

I will be examining an image taken from the Book, Acts and Monuments, or better known as the Book of Martyrs. This book was written by John Foxe in 1563. Foxe was a devout protestant during a time where Catholicism was being revived By Queen Mary. This Image displays Thomas Cranmer. Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury during King Henry’s regime and helped Henry annul his marriage with Catherine. Cranmer supported Royal Supremacy and was a huge reason for the creation of the Protestant Church during the Reformation. In his book, The Book of Martyrs, author John Foxe expresses his emotions for the protestant martyr Thomas Cranmer as he is being burned alive. Foxe was an English historian and author who used his skills to express his anger towards the suffering of Protestants under the Catholic Church. Foxe recorded the last moments of fellow Protestants who were executed under the rule of Mary. Cranmer was one of many martyrs that Foxe illustrated in his book. Foxe started working on his book in 1552 when Edward had power. After the death of Mary he met a publisher by the name of John Day where he started to publish Foxe’s work. His work didn’t make him rich, but he did become a celebrity for his literally skills. This book was attacked by Catholics and had many critics as well, which led Foxe to come out with several more editions of this version.

For my observation essay, I chose the piece The Christian Martyr by Gabriel von Max, which is on display at the Frye Art Museum, it is oil on paper, painted in 1867. I find this piece illustrates multiple principles of design- the ones standing out most clearly to me being balance, implied line, and emphasis through repetition. Hue, saturation, and value play into most of these principles as well.