A01=Glendyne R. Wergland
American sectarian minorities
archival biography research
artisan traditions in faith communities
Author_Glendyne R. Wergland
Category=DNBX
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
Category=QRMB39
celibate religious orders
clock repair and horology history
communal surveillance culture
conformity and dissent dynamics
craft labor and spirituality
discipline as spiritual practice
emotional regulation in faith
encoded journal entries
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
everyday routines in historical America
faith and self-discipline
faith-based craftsmanship
hand sewing traditions
handwritten cipher systems
identity and belonging in strict faiths
inner life of believers
insider accounts of religious life
lived experience of devotion
maintenance of domestic spaces
manuscript diary traditions
masculinity in religious history
microhistory biography
moral striving and redemption
moral struggle in sacred communities
narratives of piety
nineteenth century spiritual movements
overwork and spiritual burnout
personal record keeping practices
private confessional writing
psychological dimensions of belief
religious obedience culture
religious work ethic
rule enforcement practices
rural community governance
rural devotional communities
secrecy and self-censorship
sexual repression in religious settings
spiritual doubt and perseverance
spiritual perfectionism
tension between individuality and conformity
vernacular religious poetry
Product details
- ISBN 9781558495227
- Weight: 415g
- Dimensions: 151 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 16 Feb 2006
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A rare inside look at the life of an ordinary Shaker A member of the United Society of Believers, better known as the Shakers, Isaac Newton Youngs spent most of his life in New Lebanon, New York, home of the society's central Ministry. As both a private diarist and the official village scribe, he kept mericulous records throughout those years of both his own experience and that of the community. All told, more than four thousand pages of Brother Isaac's journals have survived, documenting the history of the Shakers during the period of their greatest success and providing a revealing view of the daily life of a rank-and-file Believer. In this deeply researched biography, Glendyne R. Wergland draws on Youngs's writings to tell his story and to explore ""the tension between desire and discipline"" at the center of his life. She follows Youngs from childhood and adolescence to maturity, through years of demanding responsibility into his fatal decline. In each of these stages, he remained a talented and committed yet independent Shaker, one who chose to stay with the community but often struggled to abide by its stringent rules, including the vow of celibacy. Perhaps above all, he was a man who spent most of his waking hours working diligently at a succession of tasks, making clocks, sewing clothes, fixing roofs, writing poetry, chronicling his daily acts and thoughts. In his journals, Brother Isaac writes at length of his efforts to control his lust as a youngman, and he complains repeatedly about overwork as he grows older. He defines the rules of his community and identifies transgressors, while enciphering his critical entries (and those chronicling his own sexual desires) to avoid detection and uphold the demand for conformity. At times he admits doubt, but without ever relinquishing the belief that he is on the straight and narrow path to salvation. What emerges in the end is the complex portrait of an ordinary man striving to live up to the imperatives of his faith.
An independent scholar, GLENDYNE R. WERGLAND lives in Dalton, Massachusetts.
