Kingdom of Matthias Market Revolution

¶ … Kingdom of Matthias

In the early nineteenth-century America went through a phase of religious revival with many people turning to the religious beliefs in Christendom following the religious instability that took place in the seventeenth-century in England for the reformation of Christians and the community. The most notable event amongst all the momentous events was called the Second Great Awakening, which lasted one year and began in 1830. This year holds a lot of history for a country like America because it was the same year that Americans reached the highest level of consumption of alcoholic drinks, with an average of four gallons per person. This was not only the highest for all the years of American history but also one of the highest in the world. It was in the year that came to be known as 'the spirit-soaked year' when the evangelical preacher Charles Grandison Finney came to Rochester, New York. New York at that time was the one of the most quickly populated communities in the United States, where Charles Grandison Finney launched a religious revival movement that took the nation by storm. This movement led to the celibate communitarian sect called the Shakers to gain many members than at any other time in its history.

The theme of this book is based in the evolving 19th-century American nation, which is written in a very detailed manner and examines every detail in the episode in a manner that relates to the era the story takes place in a dramatically detailed account. Between the periods from the 1820s to the 1840s, the two historians Johnson and Wilentz, write about the episodes explaining how the country was caught in the web of religious revivalism; this response was in reaction by those who were revolutionized by the industrial revolution.

In 1830, in the beginning of the Second Great Awakening, a carpenter in Albany, NY knew that he was the next Jewish prophet Matthias. He took advantage of his spiritual belief and got many New York businessmen to join his new found "kingdom" of his elf-proclaimed religion, which he established on one of his followers estates in Sing. Members of the religious kingdom followed his teachings blindly until sexual scandal and charges of murder and fraud wrecked him forever. Even though his trials became one of the biggest scandals for the penny press, he was free of all the serious charges and eventually disappeared.

In 1832 Elijah Pierson, who was by profession a merchant in New York was so mesmerized by religion that she turned from a religious reformer into a prophet. She met Matthias, who was born by the name of Robert Matthews. He was a person who lived as an outcast in churches and had his own beliefs, declarations and visions when it came to religion. Matthias became very popular and soon took the position that Pierson had on the stage, and began preaching an about the end of this world where only those who had no accrued liabilities or sins could survive.

Despite his preachings and 'so-called' beliefs, Matthias lives a life of luxury instead of a simple one. His extravagant life led him to take away a follower's wife. In 1834, Pierson was dies in an unexplained death leading to the arrest of Matthias on charges of murder. His arrest was highly publicized in the growing gossip hungry city of New York City penny press. After going through many trials, Matthias was found guilty not for murder but for some minor charges. Later on in the book, he disappears.

In the autumn of 1834, it was found that the New York City was under the influence of a mysterious religious cult operating under the leadership of a mysterious, self-proclaimed prophet named Matthias. The rumors were everywhere in the scandalous city. As a matter of fact, it was known by many people that Matthias the Prophet took huge sums of money by stealing from one of his followers. There were also reported incidents of promiscuous sexual relations with his followers, he used his own odd teachings of matched spirits, apostolic priesthoods, and the inferiority of women to hypnotize them. When these rumors turned into reality and then into charges against him, the Prophet was arrested for the murder of a sincerely devoted Christian cleric who had fallen prey to his bloody hands. When the story made headlines, it went on to become one of the nation's first penny-press scandalous sensations, highlighting his sexual and spiritual acts that he carried out before rumors turned into reality.

In The Kingdom of Matthias, the honorable historians Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz intensely explain the long forgotten story, to write their extensively researched work with the breathtaking drive in the form of a novel. In this book, the authors provide us with a the mysterious tale of Matthias- the Prophet through the window of the turbulent movements of the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening, a movement which led to the formation of several sects of religion and also swayed away a great number of evangelical Americans paving the path to new sects like the Mormons.

This environment was created by the carpenter named Robert Matthews, who changed his name to Matthias, as he self-proclaimed to be the prophet of the God of the Jews. He used his hypnotic spell to cast his ways on many of his unforgettable followers. Some of his followers who came to him for his magical and mystifying ways were by the of name of Elijah Pierson, a meekly businessman by profession, came to Matthias to bring back his wife from the dead; then there the young attractive Christian couple, Benjamin Folger and his wife Ann, his wife was also known for seducing the woman-hating Prophet; and then the shrewd ex-slave Isabella Van Wagenen, known by some as "the most wicked of the wicked." Althoughhis followers were quite colorful in their own ways, he was none the less more colorful, the Prophet was a bearded, tyrant who held gathering for his followers in a house, using the money from the followers to buy an elaborate, unconventional wardrobe, and even playing havoc with their marital relations. His acts grew into national tension within the kingdom and led to the clash with the law leading to his arrest and trails. By this time, Matthias had become a national scandal.

It is through the writings of the historians, Johnson and Wilentz, that the odd tale of the Prophet and his kingdom makes the characters become larger than life, by re-telling scenes from their own personal experiences at Jonestown and Waco. Using these experiences they share with the reader the period in American history by showing the changes made by the fast changing economic revolution, also in sex and race relations, politics, popular culture, and other colorful American religious experiences.

In this in-depth research, Paul Johnson takes the opportunity to explain and use a small and unknown event to depict an interesting event from an interesting perspective on the city of New York. There are several incidents used to signify the issues of sexual corruption to radical doctrinal innovations. The Burned-Over district in the city of New York, served as the platform for the many religious movements such as Mormonism, Adventism, Christian Scientists, however there are numerous smaller religions and even noteworthy political movements such as Antimasonry that did not leave their mark on American soil to exist till today.