Death by Pancakes on C-SPAN

This week, C-SPAN’s American History TV channel will rebroadcast “Death by Pancakes & Other Incidents in the History of New Light Evangelicalism,” a public lecture I presented online for the Newberry Library last May.

Here’s the official blurb from the original Newberry event:

In this illustrated lecture, historian Douglas Winiarski will explore the varied ways in which the people called “New Lights”—progenitors of today’s evangelical Protestants—resolved perplexing mind-body problems associated with their transformative conversion experiences. Winiarski will use engaging stories featuring an eclectic cast of religious radicals—hailing from New England and Maritime Canada to the trans-Appalachian west—to reveal how the transatlantic evangelical awakening of the 18th century fueled controversies over marriage, the family, sexuality, and the body.

And the full C-SPAN schedule:

  • Saturday, August 28: 4:00 p.m.

  • Sunday, August 29: 4:00 a.m. (for early risers!)

  • Sunday, September 5: 3:59 p.m. (sharp!)

  • Monday, September 6: 3:59 a.m. (seriously?)

Following the last airing, C-SPAN will archive the program on their free video library. It’s also available on the Newberry Library website.

Enjoy!

Defining the People Called New Lights

A thoughtful commentary on my book and recent scholarly debates over the definition of evangelicalism by George Mason University scholar John Turner. For an excellent related discussion published shortly after Darkness Falls on the Land of Light went to press, see Linford D. Fisher, “Evangelicals and Unevangelicals: The Contested History of a Word, 1500–1950,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 26 (2016): 184–226.