Radical Holiness and Plainfolk Modernism

This chapter explores the ways radical holiness captured, reflected, and embraced the tenor of its times. The qualities associated with modernity pervaded the movement’s culture and ideology. These qualities include the celebration of innovation and change; cultural optimism; the glorification of science, technology, and power; a dialectic relationship with urbanization; blurring of regional boundaries; and a social ethics that undermined traditional assumptions about race and gender. Radical holiness voiced each of these qualities in the idioms of plainfolk culture.

This chapter explores the ways radical holiness captured, reflected, and embraced the tenor of its times. The qualities associated with modernity pervaded the movement’s culture and ideology. These qualities include the celebration of innovation and change; cultural optimism; the glorification of science, technology, and power; a dialectic relationship with urbanization; blurring of regional boundaries; and a social ethics that undermined traditional assumptions about race and gender. Radical holiness voiced each of these qualities in the idioms of plainfolk culture.