In Thanksgiving and Praise: Prayer, Rhetoric, and Congressional Thanksgiving Proclamations

Authors

Samuel Wells, Brigham Young University
Dr. Christopher Hodson, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Congress, Thanksgiving proclamations, praise, prayer, rhetoric

College

Humanities

Department

History

Abstract

With my grant I analyzed how early congressional Thanksgiving proclamations textually moved away from overtly Christian wording while simultaneously retaining a rhetorical Christian foundation. To illustrate my point I chose to analyze said declarations as textual examples of prayer. In order to do so, I first examined Congress’s original declaration of 1777. Second, by building upon a 1739 tract by Isaac Watts entitled “A Guide to Prayer,” I employed later proclamations to illustrate the genre’s continued reliance upon the rhetoric of prayer in the face of shifting ideological norms.

Recommended Citation

Wells, Samuel and Hodson, Dr. Christopher (2014) "In Thanksgiving and Praise: Prayer, Rhetoric, and Congressional Thanksgiving Proclamations," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2014: Iss. 1, Article 218.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2014/iss1/218