Patriarchy, Family, and Society
The Kingdom of Matthias portrays a religious cult—centered on obeying men—in New York in the 1830s, led by infamous cult leader Robert Matthews (or “Matthias”). Matthews grows up in a society where men are completely in charge of their communities, homes, and families. But he struggles to adapt when religious reformers shift more power to women. In the early 1800s, evangelicals try to replace the idea that families must obey the eldest man (or father…
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Religion, Perfectionism, and Insanity
The Kingdom of Matthias argues that efforts to be religiously perfect can drive a person to insanity. Historians Johnson and Wilentz focus the book on the life stories of Elijah Pierson and Robert Matthews, who are both devout Christians growing up in the United States in the early 1800s. Despite Pierson and Matthews’s different understandings of Christianity and what it means to be a good Christian, both men feel immense pressure to be as…
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Race, Prejudice, and Resilience
The Kingdom of Matthias describes the lives of members of a religious cult in the early 1800s. Most of the cult’s participants end up ruining their lives, but one member, a formerly enslaved Black woman named Isabella Van Wagenen, emerges unscathed. The cult ultimately devolves into an environment filled with violence, sexual scandals, fear-based obedience, and murder. When the cult’s activities are exposed and there’s a public outcry, two white cult members (Ann…
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Rural Life and Urban Culture
The Kingdom of Matthias describes the life stories of Elijah Pierson and Robert Matthews, two young men who grew up in poor, rural communities in the Northeastern United States in the early 1800s, around the time when urban culture in cities like New York began to have a strong impact on American society. The men’s rural upbringings focus on community, family, farming, and strict religious obedience, but they are both forced to seek work…
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Desire, Relationships, and Sexual Freedom
The Kingdom of Matthias documents the rise and fall of a religious cult in the 1800s. However, despite claiming to be religiously motivated, the cult members are often more forcefully motivated by sexual desires. Cult leader Matthews, for example, invents new rules so that he can seduce his follower Benjamin Folger’s wife, Ann. Ann’s involvement in the cult, too, is largely driven by her romance with Matthews: her faith wanes along with…
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