The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America (1994)

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The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America
Prophet Matthias, a self-styled prophet in New York City, was the center of rumors of a strange cult that conducted its activities around the City. In the autumn of 1834, the preacher was publicly accused of brainwashing his followers with some odd beliefs and activities through teachings of forms of matched spirits in order to swindle his followers and use them for sex. He was also accused of being a male chauvinist who publicly condemned and looked down up on women and women empowerment.
The culmination of these rumors was a series of legal charges that led to the prohet`s arrest and arraignment in court. Among the accusations leveled against him were that he murdered a once high-profile Christian man who had just become one of his new followers. This was on of the nation`s first ever sensational stories and it reached a level where it had already raised eye-brows to the spiritual and sexual tensions of the day in America at the time.
The Kingdom of Matthias is a story that has been captured brilliantly by both writers, Sean Wilentz and Paul Johnson to retell the much forgotten story that was once a sensation in America. The Second Awakening movements are one the turbulent movements that the book looks into with a fascination tone that cropped up during the time and the story goes to tell the manner in which these movement and this one in particular swept the villages...