Protestants and Pictures

"A groundbreaking book [with] tremendous ramifications.... For this reviewer, Protestants and Pictures raises the staggering possibility that nineteenth-century American conservative Protestants, compared to their more liberal brethren of the early twentieth century and their more `sophisticated' evangelical-Reformed great-grandchildren at the end of the twentieth century, demonstrated the more sophisticated use of visual imagery. We'll be busy for a long time sorting out the implications of that."--Books & Culture "It demonstrates both the desirability of looking beyond current borders of art history and the kinds and amounts of information awaiting scholars ready to reaffirm the art of disfavored groups."--College Art Association Reviews "An original and thorough study of an area typically beset by common and mistaken cultural assumptions. This comprehensive and provocative analysis of the visual culture of nineteenth and twentieth century American Protestant culture is impressive informative, and a great read. Lavishly provided with illustrations, charts, and diagrams, this is an essential resource for scholars of culture, art American history and popular religion."-Religious Studies Review "Good history either advances knowledge by exploiting new source material or advances interpretation through creative synthesis. Great history does both. Protestants and Pictures is great history. Readers of David Morgan's other work in American Protestant visual imagery will find in this text the culmination of a research trajectory that has revolutionized the way historians understand visual culture in the nineteenth-century United States"--The Historian "The scholarly significance and richness of Morgan's book are difficult to overstate. Thoroughly grounded in the secondary literature on nineteenth-century Protestantism, his book incorporates the insights of that work with his own prodigious research in order to produce a compelling new synthesis."--American Historical Review "A groundbreaking book [with] tremendous ramifications.... For this reviewer, Protestants and Pictures raises the staggering possibility that nineteenth-century American conservative Protestants, compared to their more liberal brethren of the early twentieth century and their more `sophisticated' evangelical-Reformed great-grandchildren at the end of the twentieth century, demonstrated the more sophisticated use of visual imagery. We'll be busy for a long time sorting out the implications of that."--Books & Culture "It demonstrates both the desirability of looking beyond current borders of art history and the kinds and amounts of information awaiting scholars ready to reaffirm the art of disfavored groups."--College Art Association Reviews "This comprehensive and provocative analysis of the printed visual culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American Protestant culture is impressive, informative, and a great read."--Religious Studies Review "Good history either advances knowledge by exploiting new source material or advances interpretation through creative synthesis. Great history does both. Protestants and Pictures is great history. Readers of David Morgan's other work in American Protestant visual imagery will find in this text the culmination of a research trajectory that has revolutionized the way historians understand visual culture in the nineteenth-century United States. "--Historian " Decisively challenges the previously widespread and mostly mistaken notion that all Protestants are iconophobic and aniconic. As Morgan shows brilliantly, it is not just Catholics who encounter the sacred visually. Protestants have pictures too." The Journal of Religion "A truly multidisciplinary work, drawing on the history of theology, art, commerce, culture, and technology and relies on rich theories of art, rhetoric, religion, and psychology. .. This book is about more than pictures; it's about culture and communication. Everyone from art historians to Christian educators will find the book an important resource," Church History "David Morgan, Professor of at Valparaiso University, makes a major contribution to our understanding of religion and American culture with his impressively researched and well-illustrated book...[his] monumental study shows that 'seeing is believing' is a maxim deeply engrained in American culture." The Journal of American History "For those of us who are interested in- or perhaps even concerned to produce- Christian scholarship in the visual arts, Morgan's groundbreaking book has tremendous ramifications."--Books and Culture