Atract is aliterary work and, in current usage, usuallyreligious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, a tract referred to a briefpamphlet used for religious and political purposes. Tracts are often either left for someone to find or handed out. However, there have been times in history when the term implied tome-like works. Atractate, a derivative of a tract, is equivalent in Hebrew literature to achapter of the Christian Bible.
The distribution of tracts pre-dates the development of theprinting press, with the term being applied by scholars to religious and political works at least as early as the 7th century.[1] They were used to disseminate the teachings ofJohn Wycliffe in the 14th century. As a political tool, they proliferated throughout Europe during the 17th century. They have been printed as persuasive religious material since the invention ofGutenberg'sprinting press, being widely utilized byMartin Luther during the start of theLutheran movement ofChristianity.
As religious literature, tracts were used throughout the turbulence of theProtestant Reformation and the various upheavals of the 17th century. They came to such prominence again in theOxford Movement for reform within theChurch of England that the movement became known as "Tractarianism", after the publication in the 1830s and 1840s of a series of religiousessays collectively calledTracts for the Times.
These tracts were written by a group ofAnglicanclergy includingJohn Henry Newman,John Keble,Henry Edward Manning, andEdward Pusey. They weretheological discourses that sought to establish the continuity between the Church of England and thepatristic period ofchurch history. They had a vast influence onAnglo-Catholicism. They were learned works and varied in length from four to over 400 pages.[2] An important center for the spreading of tracts was the London-basedReligious Tract Society.[3][4] Tracts were used both within England, affecting the conversion of pioneer missionary to China,Hudson Taylor,[5] as well as in the crosscultural missions that movements such as Taylor founded: theChina Inland Mission.
Charles Spurgeon wrote many tracts, and in addition to these evangelical writings, his "Penny Sermons" were printed weekly and distributed widely by the millions and used in a similar way, and they still are today. In America, the American Tract Society distributed vast quantities of tracts in multitudes of languages to newly arriving immigrants atEllis Island and sought to assist them in their struggles in their new country.[6]
The publishing of tracts for religious purposes has continued unabated, with many Christian tract ministries, in particular, existing today.[7][8] In the United States, theAmerican Tract Society has continuously published literature of this type since 1825; aroundAllhallowtide, around 3 million alone are purchased annually to be distributed by Christians.[9]
By the late 19th century,Bible Students associated withZion's Watch Tower Tract Society were distributing tens of millions of tracts each year;[10] by the start of World War I, they had distributed hundreds of millions of tracts in dozens of languages worldwide.[11] The Watch Tower Society continues to publish hundreds of millions of religious tracts in more than 400 languages, which are distributed byJehovah's Witnesses.[12][13]
As evangelistic tools, tracts became prominent in theJesus movement. One of the most widely distributed, and one that continues to be handed out en masse, is "The Four Spiritual Laws" authored byBill Bright ofCampus Crusade for Christ and first published in 1965. "This Was Your Life" was the first of many tracts written byJack Chick. LaterChick tracts followed the pattern of vividcartoon images.
In the 1980s and 1990s,Last Days Ministries reprinted articles in theLast Days Newsletter byKeith Green and other contemporary and historic writers includingDavid Wilkerson,Leonard Ravenhill,Winkie Pratney,Charles Finney,John Wesley, andWilliam Booth. More recentlyLiving Waters Publications prints tracts such as "The Atheist Test" or "Are You Good Enough to Go to Heaven?", as well as tracts which feature attention-getting illusions or gags. These include the "Million Dollar Bill", which caused a legal controversy in June 2006. Most Christian tract ministries operate as non-profit "faith" organizations, some to the degree that they do not require a fee for their tracts. One of the most productive among these is Fellowship Tract League, which has printed over 4 billion Gospel tracts since 1978, available in over 70 different languages, and have been distributed into more than 200 countries.[14]
In the 2010s, Saint Paul Street Evangelization, a Roman Catholic apostolate focused onevangelism, has published tracts for distribution especially while engaged instreet ministry.[15]
Tracts are widely used inMethodist tradition, being published by apostolates such as the Pilgrim Tract Society.[16]
"Tracting" is a colloquialism commonly used by missionaries forthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to refer to door-to-door proselytizing, whether or not actual tracts are dispensed.[17]
Brochure-like tracts, also known aspamphlets, advocating political positions have also been used throughout history as well. They were used throughout Europe in the 17th century. In the 18th century, they featured prominently in the political unrest leading up to theAmerican Revolution, and in the English response to theFrench Revolution, a "pamphlet war" known as theRevolution Controversy. A well-known example of a far-reaching tract from this era isCommon Sense byThomas Paine.
Tracts were used for political purposes throughout the 20th century. They were used to spread Nazi propaganda incentral Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. According to Jack Chick, his impetus to design cartoon-based religious tracts was brought on by hearing of a similar promotional tool used by Communists inChina to wide success.[18] In the months before theJohn F. Kennedy assassination,Lee Harvey Oswald handed out pamphlets promotingFidel Castro andCommunistCuba on the streets ofNew Orleans, Louisiana.
Prominent among them was what in the context of life in the world of Islam one might call the Christianqiblah, the direction the Christians faced when they prayed, and the Jews, who faced Jerusalem, Christians customarily faced east to pray. This distinctive, Christian behavior came up for discussion in virtually every apologetic tract in Syriac or Arabic written by a Christian in the early Islamic period. In their answers to the queries of the Muslims on the subject, Christian writers never failed to mention that the reason they prayed facing east was due to the fact that the Garden of Eden was planted in the east (Genesis 2:8) and that at the end of time, at the second coming, the Messiah would approach Jerusalem from the east. Consequently, they insisted all Christians face this direction when they pray.
Evangelicals paid close attention to developments across the Atlantic. They saw in the efforts of their British cousins the potential the press offered for spreading the gospel through large-scale and inexpensive printing of tracts and Bibles.