Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Collective settlements--United States; Collective settlements; Pietists; United States;

Abstract

As a group, celibate communal societies have been the most successful communal societies in the United States. There have been many valuable studies of the celibate communal societies as individual societies. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of studies investigating their unity as a religious group, as examples of a particular phenomenon within Pietism. This study, limited to the seven earliest, celibate communal societies in the United States, has attempted to prove that the beliefs and practices of those seven societies united them as a group within Pietism similar to the unity of Pietist groups within Christianity, Bohemia Manor, the "Woman in the Wilderness," Ephrata Cloister, the Shaker Society, the Society of Universal Friends, the Harmony Society, and the Separatist Society of Zoar were examples of a special kind of religious group which can properly be called the "Radical Pietists." That conclusion is based on their Pietist heritage, their interrelationships, and their shared belief in direct inspiration, millennialism, separation from the world, asceticism, celibacy, and communism, The category, "Radical Pietists" was not intended to be limited to the seven societies in this study, The criteria developed in this study as the means for identifying the societies which fit the description, "Radical Pietists," might well be useful in understanding other celibate communal societies.

Year of Submission

1972

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of History

First Advisor

Glenda Gates McIntosh

Second Advisor

Ronald E. Roberts

Third Advisor

Charles Quirk

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1972

Object Description

1 PDF file (273 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

History Commons

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