Business of the Heart Religion and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century

"This written narrative recovers the emotional experiences of individuals from a wide array of little-used sources, including diaries, journals, correspondence, and public records. From such sources, Corrigan discovers that for these Protestants the expression of emotion was a matter of transaction. They saw emotion as a commodity and conceptualized relations between people, and between individuals and God, as transactions of emotion governed by contract. Religion became a business relation with God - with prayer as its legal tender. Entering this relationship, they were conducting the "business of the heart.""--BOOK JACKET.