The Kingdom Of Matthias By Historians Paul E. Johnson And Sean Wilentz

The Kingdom of Matthias, written by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, examines the story of the self proclaimed prophet Matthias, formerly known as Robert Matthews. They tell the story of how Matthias built his kingdom based on his religious beliefs related to the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening was a religious movement that took place during the early nineteenth century. During this time period women played the role as the caregivers who stayed at home with the children while their husbands were out working. However, it wasn’t until the Second Great Awakening that women began to play a more dominant role in society, especially in the church. Matthias was one of the main people who was directly impacted by the effects of the Second Great Awakening and the power it gave to women. Throughout Matthias’ life he had numerous troubles with women and this continued to show throughout the reign of his kingdom. Johnson and Wilentz saw that the empowerment of women in the Second Great Awakening was a factor in the demise of Matthias’ demise Kingdom. Matthias refuses the ideas of the Second Great Awakening by making sure that women in his kingdom are subordinate and condemns those who are not. [inserts thesis statement]

In essence, Matthias was an infamous misogynous. Matthias was a religious man as he moved from one denomination to the next, however with this being said it showed no effect on how he treated women. “Degenerated into a nightmare of wife-beating and child abuse.”(Johnson and Wilentz) These “nightmares” changed his attitude in his adult life into the way he ruled his kingdom. In one of his sermons Matthias said that “Women is the cap sheaf of abomination of desolation – full of deviltry”, and “All women are not obedient, had better become so soon as possible, and let the wicked spirit depart, and become vessels of truth.” (Johnson and Wilentz). Matthias is clearly denouncing the progression of women that was being made in the Nineteenth century and how he saw women in the group he had made. To add more to Matthias’ beliefs, he only saw women as items for sexual actions and for them to fulfill their positions as wives for cooking, washing, and taking

Women during this time did not demand for equal political rights because they realized in a patriarchal society their opinions had no influence on decision’s, but they were granted voting rights which were revoked in 1807 (LEB 180). Furthermore, marriages during this time were based on “mutual affection” which is complete opposite of “Kingdom of Matthias” for Matthias thought relationships based on desire and lust is unhealthy. The rights of father’s and husbands was that they had full control of their daughter or wife as they supported the family and the daughter or wife functioned in respect to their father or husband.

Women were expected to do so much but at the same time so little. They had no power to do what they desire because men had all the power to control them. Society had an expectation of how women were supposed to act. For instance, Mary’s father cared for his sons education he wanted them to know how to read, write, and to do sums, as for his daughters he only cared that they knew how to read and sew. That is the basic that women were allowed to learn it was not important for them to know more since all they were going to work for is taking care of children. Here is an example, “…Gender roles within those families the reinforcement of gender ideals such as “helpmeet” and “notable housewife” by religious and civil authorities, and the simple

Matthias was seen as a very powerful man to the people who were members of his Kingdom. He felt it was his job to bind up the broken hearted and gather the faithful people. His job was to bring “the Holy Word of the one true Lord, the Word of God and the Father” (87). His mission was the establish the reign of Truth and redeem the world from devils, prophesying women, and beaten men. Elijah Pierson

The Life of Charlemagne is an edited version from the original book Two Lives of Charlemagne. The author of the original biography is Einhard, who was his close friend and younger contemporary. He wrote this biography, after his death in 814 CE to honor Charlemagne and his contributions to the Frankish dynasty. In the historical context Charlemagne is believed to have contributed largely in flourishing the Carolingian Empire. In the book, The Life of Charlemagne, Einhard describes Charlemagne’s personal life rather than the actual historical legacies. The biography seems to have many personal bias opinions which makes the source hard to trust. One example from the text itself is when he describes King Charlemagne’s physical appearance, “His neck was short and rather thick, and his stomach a trifle too heavy, but the proportions of the rest of the body prevented from noticing these blemishes (Brophy, 250).” Even Though, the author describes the king with great details, he is positive throughout each text and avoids giving any flawed comments.

Charlemagne is described by Janet Nelson as being a role model for Einhard. Einhard himself writes in the first paragraph of The Life of Charlemagne, “After I decided to write about the life, character and no small part of the accomplishments of my lord and foster father, Charles, that most excellent and deservedly famous king, I determined to do so with as much brevity as I could.” I feel that these are sincere words about the man who cared for Einhard. I feel that Einhard’s purpose for writing The Life of Charlemagne is to praise the works of his “foster-father” and create a historical document that would describe the great deeds of Charlemagne so that he would not be forgotten throughout time as a great leader and man.

About Grand Tour In the document The Pleasures of Antiquity by Jonathan Scott, the author talks about Englishmen during period of Grand Tour. He goes in more dept about Charles Townley, who was one of the representative of the Grand Tour era and devoted to antique art works. Jonathan Scott explains the details about what Charles Townley bought and whom he bought them from, stories about relationships between the sellers and Townley, and what he did to his collection of art works. Then he talks broadly about Grand Tour of upper-class Englishmen after Townley’s death and Napoleon conquering Rome.

the people in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The book opens up describing the

The nature of Hellenistic kingship is defined by a rise to power through military conquest and victories and being in a constant state of warfare. One weakness of these kings would their ability gain a vast territory of land during one battle and retain it for months until they lose it during another battle. Demetrius’ life can be viewed as an example of many instances of this struggle to hold power. The nature of Hellenistic kingship should be looked described as no more than gaining power through military actions. These rulers could be considered usurpers of Alexander’s empire even though they all attested that they were attempting to reunite it.

Roman triumphs explain many things about the Ancient Romans like who they were as a people, what they valued, and what they deemed worthy of celebrating. Mary Beards book, The Roman Triumph, delves right into the midst of the triumphal celebrations of the Romans and what evidence historians have been able to use to change their idea about Ancient Roman culture. Triumphs were an important part of Roman culture; they demonstrated what this warrior state viewed as

181). Religion was integrated into their life. As the Industrial Age progressed, the strong religious values weakened through generations. “Female education should be preeminently religious” (p.182). The woman was the primary teacher of her child and was expected to teach themselves religion and be able to teach their children as well. “One reason religion was valued was that it did not take a woman away from her “proper sphere, her home.” (p. 181) Women only completed grade school and had many opportunities to read the bible so they were also able to preach family values, help the poor and contribute to stopping slavery. Devotion to religion was expected. Welter explains that a woman’s brain is capable of comprehending religion even though it is not visible. As the Industrial Age progressed, the strong religious values weakened through generations. Submission, another principle, kept women from voicing her opinion when having a discussion with their husbands or telling their husbands to terminate an annoying idiosyncrasy. “Wives were advised to do their best to reform men, but if they couldn’t, to give up gracefully. If any habit of his annoyed me, I spoke of it once or twice calmly, then bore it quietly.”(p. 186) She would reinforce her submissiveness by wearing tight corsets which would limit her breathing and physical mobility and remain uncomfortable. They were expected to be subservient to men as well as homemakers. “In Women of

The book is told in the first person from Jonas' (the main character) point of view, and starts off describing what Jonas is feeling about the ceremony that will decide his occupation for life. The community Jonas lives in has a lot of strict rules that if not followed can lead to "release." Children are assigned their jobs at the

The main players in the story are, Aaron Anthony. Aaron Anthony is Frederick’s first master, he is also believed to be his father. Douglass knows that his father is white but that is the only thing he knows about him. Aaron Anthony, shows no affection; common for slave masters but he is extremely harsh than other masters. He always ignored Douglass and beat slaves,including females slaves. He beats Douglass’s aunt for having ‘relations’ with another slave. At the young age he is,he was introduced to violence towards female slaves as well as female slaves being raped by their masters.

Ridderbos’ The Coming of the Kingdom guides us through the lens of the Scripture alone that we must grasp God’s kingdom to have a Theocentric view that The Kingdom is truly God’s and not man centered. The kingdom is not a condition of society to produce a social Gospel. Too often it is forgotten that God’s kingdom is truly about God. When we ask ourselves or others what God’s kingdom will be like, common thoughts are, what it will be like for myself? How will I experience Heaven? Additionally, we can discern a sense of an individual’s attitude towards Heaven by the way of their approach to worship. Is worship primarily for God or is it mostly a personal experience? Hopefully, we will lead the worship of God and a mindset that we corporately serve Him. The real focus is not for ourselves from our own perspective, but an attempt to comprehend what we can from God’s view in Scripture in the hope of doing what is pleasing to Him. Having said that, our experience shall be peace, happiness beyond compare and a blessedness being with God. Ridderbos instructs us of how God is being revealed, an example is in Isaiah 40-55 and particularly Is. 40:9. In verse 9, vividly striking is the thought of exclamation, Behold your God or Here is your God. Perhaps this is accurately captured by the thought of going to a mountain with a mighty shout to tell the towns of Judah here is your God! It is the same call we make evangelistically today. The kingdom of Heaven is the kingdom of God,