You can do almost anything with enough freedom and self-confidence

"Democratization of American Christianity" by Nathan Hatch should perhaps have a subtitle of "The Desired Effect of Individual Autonomy". Much of what is covered in the book about the birth stages of American Christianity is directly related to newfound freedom and individualization. While the book covers a variety of movements that span a variety of generations, races, and classes, one of the core themes is simply that given autonomy and self-confidence, men were able to make religious freedom their own, correlate it with their other newfound freedoms, and enjoy a religious life that was unfiltered by feared “Authority”. 

Hatch seems to play off of the point that “authority” was a really big deal for the first and second generation of Revolution-Americans. It permeated every aspect of their lives, including the religious and spiritual. 

Who has the right to speak for what God intended for me? This era seemed to answer that question with the answer to everything: me, the commoner, the fellow man, the Joseph Smiths and the Richard Furmans, and also the Richard Allens. 

No more were the not-so-common “kings” of religion - educated clergy - so important. Instead, personal experience and a little self-confidence in the call was all a man needed to become a preacher of Christianity. After all, To decentralize the authority of the high-brow, educated clergy was to further sever ties with England. This autonomy-driven, free-thought-promoting view of religious affiliation greatly aided the spread of religious movements around America, and it also probably aided the drive of the circuit-preachers and traveling ministers that were making these religions move. In this era, religion mirrored public life in that if you give a man autonomy, there’s no telling what feats he will be capable of.