In case you've not heard, the New Year comes in tonight. December 31 marks the end of the first calendar year of this blog, although the first post didn't show up until May 4. The average daily visitors has grown by about 400% since that first month. That's not what's the most interesting point, however. One of the things that I find interesting is the pages that have been viewed the most...
Here are the top 5 pages for this blog for all of 2011:
1. My Paper from the Northern Great Plains History Conference
2. Jan Hus--Pics from Bethlehem Chapel in Prague
3. Perry, Romney, and Mormonism
4. New England Execution Sermons
5. Olomouc, Czech Republic--Pics Included
From this quick perusal of the most popular posts, it appears that people like pictures of cool things from a foreign country. That's no big surprise. A couple of other topics that surprised me as to their popularity (as shown from search results) were Mormons and execution sermons. The Mormons may be getting a bit more press this year because two of their number are running for president. New England execution sermons, or some variation of this topic received quite a bit in the way of search traffic, which was very surprising. Perhaps, people enjoy reading about morbid stuff. I enjoyed the book Between Heaven and Earth, the subject of my post on the subject of Puritan execution sermons.
What topics did you find most interesting? What topics would you like to see covered in the future? I'm interested to know going forward.
Oh, yeah, and have a great 2012--even if the Mayans were right.
Showing posts with label Public Executions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Public Executions. Show all posts
31 December 2011
16 June 2011
New England Execution Sermons
Imagine yourself as a convicted fellon about to go to the gallows. What would be the last thing you would want to hear? In New England, the condemned man or woman got to listen to an execution sermon. One of the more interesting books (possibly a sign of my own morbidity) that I read during my first semester as a doctoral student was Scott D. Seay's Hanging between Heaven and Earth: Capital Crime, Execution Preaching, and Theology in Early New England (Northern Illinois University Press, 2009).
In his book, Seay divided New England history into three periods: the Puritan (1623-1700), the provincial (1700-1774), and the early national (1775-1835). One of the major threads that tied these eras together was the preaching of the execution sermon before the condemned went to the gallows. However, these sermons evolved with the theology of New England. The early Puritans held to a strict Calvinist theology, while the latter New Englanders moderated or even repudiated this Calvinism. Accordingly, the themes of the sermons tended to change.
The early Calvinist ministers held out little hope for the condemned. Their very crime and conviction were nearly a certain sign of their reprobation. Of course, there was the slight chance of conversion because of the mysterious ways of God's grace. The main goal of the sermon and subsequent execution was warning, causing the hearers/audience to think about their federal connection to the condemned in Adam, i.e., but for the grace of God, there go I. The audienced needed to watch these graphic examples before their base and depraved natures took over and made them candidates for similar atrocities.
During the provincial period, ministers began to hope for the salvation of the offender--a sort of "death bed" confession. The grace of God worked over and above the evil of the convict in these instances and provided a great example for the hearers. The view of execution became based more upon a social contract than a punishment that rid the land of evildoers. By the early national period, with its emphasis on the ideas of the Enlightenment, public executions became less common, as did the public execution sermon.
These execution sermons in one way provide a good example of capitalist enterprise. The publishing of these sermons became commonplace, and they were among the top sellers of the day. As the sermons became less common, however, so did the profits from their sale. Seay relied upon these published sermons for his work, and a very interesting work it was.
In his book, Seay divided New England history into three periods: the Puritan (1623-1700), the provincial (1700-1774), and the early national (1775-1835). One of the major threads that tied these eras together was the preaching of the execution sermon before the condemned went to the gallows. However, these sermons evolved with the theology of New England. The early Puritans held to a strict Calvinist theology, while the latter New Englanders moderated or even repudiated this Calvinism. Accordingly, the themes of the sermons tended to change.
The early Calvinist ministers held out little hope for the condemned. Their very crime and conviction were nearly a certain sign of their reprobation. Of course, there was the slight chance of conversion because of the mysterious ways of God's grace. The main goal of the sermon and subsequent execution was warning, causing the hearers/audience to think about their federal connection to the condemned in Adam, i.e., but for the grace of God, there go I. The audienced needed to watch these graphic examples before their base and depraved natures took over and made them candidates for similar atrocities.
During the provincial period, ministers began to hope for the salvation of the offender--a sort of "death bed" confession. The grace of God worked over and above the evil of the convict in these instances and provided a great example for the hearers. The view of execution became based more upon a social contract than a punishment that rid the land of evildoers. By the early national period, with its emphasis on the ideas of the Enlightenment, public executions became less common, as did the public execution sermon.
These execution sermons in one way provide a good example of capitalist enterprise. The publishing of these sermons became commonplace, and they were among the top sellers of the day. As the sermons became less common, however, so did the profits from their sale. Seay relied upon these published sermons for his work, and a very interesting work it was.
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