The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1994

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue

Part 1, Introduction

Part 1, Sections 1-3

Part 1, Sections 4-7

Part 2, Introduction

Part 2, Sections, 1-4

Part 2, Sections 5-7

Part 3, Sections 1-3

Part 3, Sections 4-6

Part 4, Sections 1-4

Part 4, Sections 5-8

Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Part 2, Sections 5-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Robert Matthews”

Part 2, Section 5 Summary

Finneyite Edward Norris Kirk first arrived in New York in 1828 when the Reverend James Chester, leader of the Second Presbyterian Church, invited him to speak and offered him a post. The appointment was short-lived. Kirk shocked the congregation by revealing he was a Finneyite. He railed against the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, insisting that people are responsible for their own salvation and that nothing is predestined. His declarations offended the conservative, mostly-poor congregation, and Kirk was dismissed from his post. Undeterred, Kirk took a few followers with him and established the Fourth Presbyterian Church, which met at the North Dutch Church. He held very long Sunday services, and his dedicated followers actively promoted his teachings, which significantly increased church membership, especially among women. Matthews became attracted to Kirk’s message, but rumors about Matthews’s wife-beating, his erratic mood swings, and his unsteady work habits led Kirk to reject his formal application to join his congregation. Humiliated, Matthews tried to redeem himself, but when he appeared unannounced at Kirks church for service, he was thrown out. At this time, Matthews claimed that he was experiencing prophetic visions, a claim that foreshadows the establishment of his own church a few years later.

Part 2, Section 6 Summary

By 1830, Matthews’s mental decline became apparent. He reported that God had instructed him to stop shaving; he also stopped working altogether. The authors make the point that his failure to work and support his family was contrary to one of the most basic precepts of evangelical manhood. Matthews’s visions of a great destruction convinced him that he must save himself and his family from God's pending wrath. Margaret resisted his rantings, but Matthews convinced his three young sons to leave with him to go save the world. Margaret reported him to the church, and local police put out bulletins alerting people that the mentally-unbalanced Matthews was on the loose. Matthews and his sons were found in nearby Argyle a few days later; the children were unharmed, and Matthews was committed to an asylum for two weeks. After his release, he started beating Margaret and was arrested for domestic abuse; lack of evidenced, however, led to his release. At this point, Matthews abandoned his family, took the name Matthias the Prophet, and became a traveling preacher.

Part 2, Section 7 Summary

Matthews attended a Finneyite revival in Rochester, where he briefly reunited with his brother, a portrait painter. The authors mark this event as the last time Matthews had contact with his brother or anyone else in his immediate family. Although both men shared an intense dislike for Finneyism, the two quarreled, and Matthews left Rochester two weeks later. He continued traveling throughout rural upstate New York and picked up Anti-Freemason sentiments following an encounter with a disgruntled ex-Mason. Matthews traveled as far as Washington, D.C. before heading back to New York. When he returned, people who knew him were astonished by his disheveled appearance and long, raggedy beard. By 1832, he was preaching to crowds on the streets, claiming to be 1800 years old. In this situation, Matthews and Pierson first met.

Part 2, Sections 5-7 Analysis

America’s fascination with cults, according to Johnson and Wilentz, is a phenomenon linked to America’s deeply-religious fundamentalist population, which first emerged during the evangelical revivalist movements of the Second Great Awakening. Most followers belonged to disenfranchised demographic groups; poor whites, slaves, and women were excluded from participating and benefitting from emergent market capitalism and evangelical movements like Finneyism, which targeted middle and upper-class males. Longing for the past, some believers gravitated to cult leaders like Matthews, who promised to bring back the old ways. As the authors explain, most cult followers harbored "persistent American hurts and rages wrapped in longings for a supposedly bygone holy patriarchy" (173). Cult leaders like Matthews attracted followers from marginalized populations, especially the spiritually and/or economically lost. This portion of the population believed that they would benefit if they followed the cult leader without question. At the heart of a successful cult were followers who blindly believed their leaders were an answer to their prayers for spiritual enlightenment.

In Sections 4 to 7 of Part 2, two important themes intersect: the impact of market capitalism merges with Matthew’s destabilized mental health as a result of his tragic losses to create a difficult situation. Matthews’s compromised grasp on reality was evidenced by his claim that he was in direct communication with God and that he was God’s prophet. As a self-proclaimed prophet, Matthews and his followers showed a darker side of the effect of market capitalism as it existed during the Second Great Awakening: people who were excluded from participating or benefitting from the religious, economic and social changes of the time often took matters into their own hands. Matthias renounced Finneyite revivalism and middle-class wealth, choosing instead to reinforce Old Testament patriarchal norms in part because these new institutions refused to accept him.

When Kirk refused to allow Matthews to join his church, Matthews rejected Finneyism and claimed allegiance to working-class Christians who, like Matthews, had been denied access to the benefits of the new market economy. Matthews resented the better-educated, middle- and upper-class Finneyites whom he claimed were foolish in their beliefs that their Christian revivalist perspective was better suited to emerging capitalist social norms thanks to their new ways of finding spiritual and religious fulfillment. Matthews went as far as to state that Finneyism and other revivalist sects repudiated Old Testament religious standards. He defended "ancient truths" such as those espoused by the God of the Jews, who unlike the Finneyites, spread a message that contained the “perverse claims of arrogant, affluent and self-satisfied enemies of God" (9).