Read, in Albanese,

Chapter 7:  Visions of Paradise Planted:  19th Century New Religions, 218 - 247

From the Internet:

Visit, download, and read two of the four sites below, one each on the Shakers and the Oneida Community

The Website of the Shaker Community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine.  The last Surviving Shaker Community, at http://www.shaker.lib.me.us/about.html

A Fact Sheet on the Shaker Movement at the University of Virginia's Religious Movements Home Page found at http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Shakers.html

An Introduction to the Oneida Community, found at http://www.nyhistory.com/central/oneida.htm

A Fact Sheet on Oneida Perfectionism, found at http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Oneida.html

The United States's tradition of religions freedom and official neutrality in matters of religion has meant that America has been a fertile ground for the developing of new forms of religious expression.  Some of these have flourished for a time and then withered away.  Others have endured and continue to flourish.  This week we'll briefly survey some of the most important of these.  On Tuesday we'll begin with two utopian experiments:  The Shakers and the Oneida Community.  Of the two, the Shakers was the largest and most influential.  We'll view a video by the celebrated documentary film maker, Ken Burns (The Civil War, Jazz, Baseball) entitled The Shakers:  hands to work, hearts to God, and following the film we'll discuss the two movements for the rest of the period.  The discussion may well continue in the opening minutes of the class on Thursday.

Both of these communities preached a radical rearrangement of social relationships between men and women, and each argued for a strict equality of men and women.  One significant difference between them resolved around issues related to sexual expression.  The Shakers were celibate, and survived on recruitment from the outside world.  Oneida practiced a complex system called Communal Marriage, in which each member of the community was considered, quite literally, to be espoused to every other member, and assignations were arranged by committee.

Read, in Corbett,

Chapter 7:  Christianities That Began in the United States

On the Internet:  Visit the websites of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints:  at http://www.lds.org/
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Community of Christ,  at http://www.CofChrist.org/
Christian Science at http://www.tfccs.com
Seventh-Day Adventists at http://www.adventist.org/
Jehovah's Witnesses at http://www.watchtower.org/

At each of these websites, try to locate a section which discusses the beliefs and practices of the church, and think about what they emphasize as central and unique about themselves.  Focus on the four C's we've used before:  Creeds, Code, Cultus, and Community.
 

We'll wrap up any loose ends concerning Shakerism and Oneida Perfectionism, and then proceed to look at those unique religious expressions begun in the United States and flourishing to this day:  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) (and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), Christian Science, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses.