The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America

Personal tragedy contributed to the religious delusions and irrationality of both Matthews and Elijah Pierson. Matthews’s parents died when he was very young, extended family and community members stepped in to look after him and his siblings. Matthews apparently suffered from "chronic nervousness" as a direct result of his parents' death. After three of his sons died, the last from an agonizing bout with smallpox, Matthews lost his grip on reality, and he began to have delusions. The authors contend that these traumatic events caused Matthews, who was already mentally unstable, to spiral into madness, which in his case manifested in religious delusions.

Elijah Pierson experienced profoundly mind-altering grief as a result of his wife's illness and death. In his grief, he claimed that he could raise his wife from the dead. At this time, Pierson also started to experience auditory hallucinations in the form of voices. The voices and the delusions convinced Pierson that he was a prophet and that he was destined to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord. Consequently, he started referring to himself as Elijah the Prophet.

The tragic events in the lives of Matthews and Pierson drove them to mental instability. Both Matthews and Pierson were unable to cope with their grief and loss, and their inability to reconcile the death of loved ones combined with extreme and unusual religious beliefs, resulting in more tragedy and loss for members of their community. 

The link between sex and marriage is also a recurring theme throughout the book. Matthews's Kingdom caused a national scandal because Kingdom cult members were willing to eschew prevailing sexual and social norms of the time in the name of Matthias’s Spirit of Truth.

According to Matthews, "match spirits," the equivalent of soulmates, existed for every individual. Matthews explained that various individuals were destined to be together, no matter their pre-existing Christian marriages. Matthews dissolved marriages between his followers as he pleased, demonstrating his rejection of Christian free will and the sanctity of Christian matrimony.

The concept of match spirits reveals Matthews’s narcissism. In reality, Matthews rationalized promiscuity so that he and Ann Folger could be married. They shared a bed even as Benjamin and Ann Folger continued their sexual relationship. When Folger became involved with Matthews’s daughter Isabella, Matthews claimed that Folger and Isabella were match spirits and married them, even though Isabella was already married.

The widow Catherine Galloway claimed that she and Folger were match spirits, but Folger did not marry her until a judge ordered Isabella to return to her husband. Only Pierson was never assigned a match spirit by Matthews. The promiscuity that characterized life at Mount Zion created bitterness and division within the Kingdom, which led to the demise of the cult. 

The authors place the story of Robert Matthews squarely in the middle of the Second Great Awakening, an American religious movement based in part on a rejection of European rationalism and a need to respond to changing social norms. The rejection of rationalism, in conjunction with the introduction of market capitalism and accompanying religious, social and political changes, collectively led to the largest mass conversion to evangelism in U.S. history. The Second Great Awakening reached its peak in the 1830s, beginning in upstate New York and New England, and then moving southward and westward, taking root especially in Appalachia before continuing on to the still-expanding American frontier.

The voices of the Second Great Awakening employed a populist tone, which encouraged many Americans to see themselves as spiritual equals to their pastors and preachers. Disenfranchised populations, including women, slaves, and poor Anglos, were especially drawn to this movement. Against this backdrop, the Kingdom of Matthias flourished, aided by preachers with more charisma than theological training.