In analyzing the 18th<\/sup> Century Age of revolutions, interesting parallels between scholarly writings were drawn upon by Shrout and Westbury regarding the relationships of the various revolutions in the Atlantic World.\u00a0 While the argument that ties were felt between revolutionary actors in different areas was legitimate, I found the mention of religion shortly after particularly intriguing.\u00a0 While scholars indicated religion as an organizational factor central to the lives of people in the Age of Revolutions, particularly in the cases of Equiano and the Salzburgs, others such as Gillikin argued that religion was a fracturing identity.\u00a0 Although I have not extensively researched the topic, I would argue that religions effectiveness in revolutionary organization was entirely reliant on the demographic of the rebels.<\/p>\n For example, a country with a recognized state church would find its members much more able to use said church\u2019s institutions as a means to congregate the populace to discuss and resolve issues or make a plan of action on a wide-spread basis that would experience less division because of a greater unanimity of beliefs.\u00a0 A country with no established church, such as the United States, would cater to small-scale organization through religious entities but would find difficulty in finding a consensus cross-religion.\u00a0 Granted, citizens of the United States would be able to find similarities in their desire to express religion freely, but when deciding on major beliefs of a revolutionary movement religious principles could easily find conflict with each other.<\/p>\n In Alex\u2019s post regarding The Meany Headed Hydra<\/i>, he brings up a good point: \u201cMobs are desperate and do what they can to achieve their own ends. In my view, class trumps race or any other political category when administrating a revolt.\u201d\u00a0 This idea could be used in the analyzation of the use of religion in revolutionary terms as well: do the ends justify the means?\u00a0 Could different denominations find common ground in order to achieve their goals, nullifying the negative effects of a diverse population?\u00a0 Although it is possible, religion has historically been such a divisive factor that I believe the grievances would have to be very severe for revolutionaries to overlook their religious beliefs in order to achieve a goal.<\/p>\n There are, of course, more factors affecting religion\u2019s influence.\u00a0 The degree of religious devotion, history between different religions and denominations, and the degree of belief similarities would all have effects on the ability for two different religious parties to work together.\u00a0 This does not change the ability, however, for religious institutions to aid in the organization of revolutionary tactics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In analyzing the 18th Century Age of revolutions, interesting parallels between scholarly writings were drawn upon by Shrout and Westbury regarding the relationships of the various revolutions in the Atlantic World.\u00a0 While the argument that ties were felt between revolutionary actors in different areas was legitimate, I found the mention of religion shortly after particularly … <\/p>\n