Notes from Kai Erikson, Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance

 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1966)

 

--accepts general theories of Emile Durkheim and George Herbert Mead that deviance is necessary to society, that deviance performs necessary social functions.  According to Durkheim, crime and other forms of deviance are "an integral part of all healthy societies"

 

--crime/deviance "may actually perform a needed service to society by drawing people together in a common posture of anger and indignation.  The deviant individual violates rules of conduct which the rest of the community holds in high respect; and when these people come together to express their outrage over the offenses and to bear witness against the offender, they develop a tighter bond of solidarity"

 

--"the deviant act, then, creates a sense of mutuality among the people of a community by supplying a focus for group feeling . . . deviance makes people more alert to the interests they share in common and draws attention to those values which constitute the collective conscience of the community"

 

--"deviance refers to conduct which the people of a group consider so dangerous or embarrassing or irritating that they bring special sanctions to bear against the persons who exhibit it."  deviance is culturally specific and is defined by the group

                       

                        Much madness is divinest sense

                        To a discerning eye,

                        Much sense, the starkest madness.

                        'Tis the majority

                        In this, as all, prevail:

                        Assent, and you are sane;

                        Demur, you're straightway dangerous

                        And handled with a chain.     

(Emily Dickinson)

 

--"it is by no means evident that all acts considered deviant in society are in fact (or even in principle) harmful to group life"

 

--as a special place, a community is set apart by its occupation of group space--both geographical and cultural.  Communities, then, have geographical and cultural boundaries.

 

Communities exist by maintaining their boundaries, thus keeping intact a shared identity.

"A human community can be said to maintain boundaries, then, in a sense that its members tend to confine themselves to a particular radius of activity and to regard any conduct which drifts outside that radius as somehow inappropriate or immoral."

 

--"the only material found in a society for marking boundaries is the behavior of its members--or rather, the networks of interaction which link these members together in regular social relations."

 

--"the deviant is a person whose activities have moved outside the margins of the group, and when the community calls him [or her] to account for that vagrancy, it is making a statement about the nature and placement of its boundaries."

 

--"members of a community inform one another about the placement of their boundaries by participating in the confrontations which occur when persons who venture out to the edges of the group are met by policing agents whose special business is to guard the cultural integrity of the community."

 

--"deviant forms of behavior, by marking the outer edges of group life, give the inner structure its special character and thus supply the framework within which the people of a group develop an orderly sense of their own cultural identity."

 

societies, then, do not seek to obliterate or erase deviant behavior, but to contain it.  deviants are assigned a role and are required to maintain this role.  Trials, as an elaborate and formal ritual, are necessary in the public assigning of deviant roles.  Deviants are not really expected to change.

 

--"the deviant and his [her] more conventional counterpart live in much the same world of symbol and meaning, sharing a similar set of interests in the universe around them.  The thief and his [her] victim share a common respect for the value of property; the heretic and the inquisitor speak much the same language and are keyed to the same religious mysteries"

 

--"the deviant and the conformist, then, are creatures, of the same culture, inventions of the same imagination"

 

--"if deviation and conformity are so alike, it is not surprising that deviant behavior should seem to appear in a community at exactly those points where it is most feared.  Men [and women] who fear witches soon find themselves surrounded by them; men who become jealous of private property soon encounter eager thieves.  And if it is not always easy to know whether fear creates the deviance or deviance the fear"

  

 

Watch out false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. – Matthew 7:15

A wolf in sheep's clothing is an idiom from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew.  It warns against individuals who play a deceptive role. The gospel regards such individuals (particularly false teachers) as dangerous.

Fables based on the idiom, dated no earlier than the 12th century CE, have been falsely credited to ancient Greek storyteller Aesop (620–564 BCE). The confusion arises from the similarity of themes in Aesop’s Fables concerning wolves that are mistakenly trusted, with the moral that human nature eventually shows through any disguise.

In the modern era, zoologists have applied the idiom to the use of aggressive mimicry by predators, whether the disguise is as the prey itself, or as a different but harmless species.

--Wikipedia

The phrase describes a person who appears gentle, friendly, or harmless on the outside, but is really dangerous, hostile, or out to do harm. The pleasant exterior is a disguise that hides a predator’s true nature. It is a warning to look past a charming or innocent appearance, because the most dangerous enemies are often the ones who do not look dangerous at all.

Source: https://proverbicals.com/a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing

The image is ancient and comes to us from two great sources. It is the theme of one of Aesop’s fables, in which a wolf wraps himself in a fleece to slip in among the sheep unnoticed. It also appears famously in the Bible, where Jesus warns in the Gospel of Matthew (7:15): “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Between the fable and the scripture, the phrase has been a byword for hidden danger for many centuries.

Source: https://proverbicals.com/a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing

 

At its core, the metaphor symbolizes deception and hypocrisy. Just as a wolf takes on the disguise of a sheep to infiltrate the flock unnoticed, deceitful individuals cloak their true motives under a facade of righteousness, seeking to exploit and harm the unsuspecting. 

 

  

Burned-Over District and Religious Revivalism

 

I found that region of country what, in the western phrase, would be called, a "burnt district." There had been, a few years previously, a wild excitement passing through that region, which they called a revival of religion, but which turned out to be spurious. ... It was reported as having been a very extravagant excitement; and resulted in a reaction so extensive and profound, as to leave the impression on many minds that religion was a mere delusion. A great many men seemed to be settled in that conviction. Taking what they had seen as a specimen of a revival of religion, they felt justified in opposing anything looking toward the promoting of a revival.  –Charles Finney, Autobiography of Charles G. Finney (1876)

 

In the early decades of the 19th century, a region in upstate New York became the most  spiritually and socially combustible area in the United States. Known as the “Burned-Over District,” this stretch of land witnessed such intense waves of  religious revival that it was said there was no more “fuel” (souls) left to burn.

The term refers to western and central New York State, stretching roughly from Albany through Rochester and into Buffalo. This region lay along the Erie Canal, a major route of commerce and migration in the early 1800s. The rapid social and economic changes brought by the canal system created fertile ground for spiritual searching and new movements.

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)

• Founder: Joseph Smith (1805–1844)
• Origin: Palmyra, New York
• Smith reported visions beginning in 1820, including visits from an angel named Moroni and the discovery of golden plates that became the Book of Mormon.
• The early Latter-day Saint movement reflected the district’s mix of revival fervor, millennial expectation, and belief in ongoing revelation.

2. The Millerite Movement

• Leader: William Miller (1782–1849), a Baptist lay preacher.
• Belief: Christ would return around 1843–1844. When this didn’t occur—the Great Disappointment—followers eventually formed the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

3. The Spiritualist Movement

Spiritualism, in religion, a movement beginning in the 19th century in America and Europe based on the belief that departed souls can interact with the living. Spiritualists sought to make contact with the dead, usually through the assistance of a medium, a person believed to have the ability to contact spirits directly. Some mediums worked while in a trancelike state, and some claimed to be the catalyst for various paranormal physical phenomena (including the materializing or moving of objects) through which the spirits announced their presence.

Britannica

  

Millenarianism

the doctrine of or belief in a future (and typically imminent) thousand-year age of blessedness, beginning with or culminating in the Second Coming of Christ. It is central to the teaching of groups such as Plymouth Brethren, Adventists, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Jehovah's Witnesses.  Dictionary.Com

 

Millenarianism or millenarism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarianism exists in various cultures and religions worldwide, with various interpretations of what constitutes a transformation.  These movements believe in radical changes to society after a major cataclysm or transformative event.

Both millennialism and millenarianism refer to "one thousand". They both derive from the Christian tradition. Neither term strictly refers to "one thousand" in modern academic usage.

Millenarianism is used to refer to a more cataclysmic and destructive arrival of a utopian period as compared to millennialism which is often used to denote a more peaceful arrival and is more closely associated with a one thousand year utopia.

Christian millennialism is part of the broader form of apocalyptic expectation. A core doctrine in some variations of Christianity is the expectation that the Second Coming is very near and that there will be an establishment of a Kingdom of God  on Earth.   According to an interpretation of biblical prophecies in the Book of Revelation, this Kingdom of God on Earth will last a thousand years (a millennium) or more.  Wikipedia

 

millennialism, the belief, expressed in the book of Revelation to John, the last book of the New Testament , that Christ will establish a 1,000-year reign of the saints on earth (the millennium) before the Last Judgment. More broadly defined, it is a cross-cultural concept grounded in the expectation of a time of supernatural peace and abundance on earth.

Millennialism offers a version of the fundamental eschatological belief that at the end of time (the “End,” or “Endtime”) God will judge the living and the resurrected dead. This belief in ultimate divine justice provides a rationale for theodicy, the reconciliation of God’s goodness with the existence of evil in the world. In providing solace for the suffering of countless generations of believers—Jews, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists—millennialism has had immense appeal in every age. Although its name comes from the 1,000-year period mentioned in the Revelation to John, millennialism is primarily concerned with the earthly nature of the coming “new world.” This radical transformation promises an end to existing institutions of power and, therefore, infuses millennial beliefs with a revolutionary quality that threatens those in authority.  Britannica

To understand millenarianism, consider the following points:

• Millenarianism is a belief in a coming transformation of society, often linked to religious prophecies.
• It typically involves the expectation of a "millennium," a period of peace and prosperity.
• Many millenarian movements anticipate a messianic figure or divine intervention.
• These beliefs can lead to social or political activism aimed at bringing about change.
• Millenarianism has appeared in various cultures and religions throughout history.
• It often reflects a response to social, economic, or political crises.  AI Summary

 

Adventism

Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (Second Advent) of Jesus Christ.  It originated in the 1830s in the US  during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher William Miller first publicly shared his belief that the Second Coming would occur at some point between 1843 and 1844. His followers became known as Millerites. After Miller’s prophecies failed, the Millerite movement split up and was continued by a number of groups that held different doctrines from one another. These groups, stemming from a common Millerite ancestor, collectively became known as the Adventist movement.  Wikipedia

Adventist, member of any one of a group of Protestant Christian churches that trace their origin to the US in the mid-19th century and that are distinguished by their emphasis on the belief that the personal, visible return of Christ in glory (i.e., the Second Coming  is close at hand, a belief shared by many Christians. While most Adventist groups remain relatively small, the Seventh-day Adventist Church  has become a significant global body, with congregations in more than 200 countries and a membership of more than 14 million.

Adventism is rooted in the millennial expectations recorded in the Bible.  From their biblical study, the Adventists came to believe that, at the Second Coming, Christ will separate the saints from the wicked and inaugurate his millennial (1,000-year) kingdom. The Adventists’ emphasis on the Second Coming led many of them to predict the date of its occurrence.

Britannica