And footlights lit the path of the righteous: Theatricality and performance in the Second Great Awakening

This study examines the theatricalization of American Protestant evangelical Christianity during the Second Great Awakening (1790-1840). Using as organizing principles the concepts of form, function, and performance, I illustrate the theatrical shift in the religious culture of American evangelical Protestantism. Further, I attribute a large part of the success of the Second Great Awakening to the theatricalization of evangelical Protestantism.