'America's native author': E. P. Roe and the strategies of religious fiction

The religious novels of Edward Payson Roe reflect the social and religious transitions that accompanied the "crisis of faith" that afflicted many in post-bellum America. Roe's fiction, popular from 1872 until 1912, sought to provide the middle class with moral and social answers to the problems of the day. Analysis of Roe'e stories suggests that he spoke to his readers using a familiar and colloquial style of communication intended to persuade his audience to seek change through the development of moral character.;E. P. Roe left his successful pulpit ministry in order to widen his sphere of influence through his popular fiction. The first two chapters of this dissertation survey his life and the context of his time seeking those relationships and experiences that help twentieth-century students to interpret his novels and his audience. This section concludes that Roe wrote to middle class readers who walked transitional paths seeking personal, financial and moral success in spite of the social confusion of the day.;The third and fourth chapters consider the ways in which Roe presented his message in his religious stories. The fifth chapter analyzes Roe's success in speaking clearly to his intended audience. As a minister in the revivalist tradition, E. P. Roe used many of the persuasive techniques popularized during the Second Great Awakening. The use of these methods reveals Roe's Moralist theology that rejected the stern Calvinism of his Presbyterian forebears in favor of a faith that accepted an unfallen will capable of demonstrating good moral character when under the right influences.;The success of the message presented by Roe is difficult to determine, but his knowledge of his readers and his use of popular rhetorical strategies suggests that Roe influenced many to better character. Any answers are important to modern-day cultural arbiters who use the same rhetorical strategies to address similar questions that face ministers a century ago.