The Great Victorian Sacrilege: Preachers, Politics and the Passion, 1879-1884

By Alan Nielsen

What happens when freedom of artistic expression offends freedom of religion? A great controversy arose when America's first professional Passion play, staged in San Francisco in 1879, was pronounced a "sacrilege" by Protestant ministers (Salmi Morse's play, The Passion, was in reality a pious description of the Gospel story). This work shows that Morse and his play were victims of the Protestant church's struggle to maintain power during the late 1800s, a time when America was changing into a more urban nation. This saga of a society's attempt to control "immoral"art by government intervention is also a disconcerting look at how easily artistic freedom can be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786473878
• ISBN13: 9780786473878
• Release Date: February 2013
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher