The public Christianity of the southern New England clergy contributed to reform movements during the 1820s and 1830 in two principal ways. Ministers deployed the language of Providence in order to warn that societal sinfulness would invite divine wrath. They also invoked their ideal of a godly community in order to denounce selfishness and immorality. As a result, ministers were able to critique the excesses of romantic nationalism, the market revolution, and intemperance, and to speak out in favor of Sabbatarianism, antislavery, and African colonization.

The public Christianity of the southern New England clergy contributed to reform movements during the 1820s and 1830 in two principal ways. Ministers deployed the language of Providence in order to warn that societal sinfulness would invite divine wrath. They also invoked their ideal of a godly community in order to denounce selfishness and immorality. As a result, ministers were able to critique the excesses of romantic nationalism, the market revolution, and intemperance, and to speak out in favor of Sabbatarianism, antislavery, and African colonization.