Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287871
- eISBN:
- 9780191713422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287871.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Frederic Rowland Young was a Secularist lecturer who worked for G. J. Holyoake and wrote for his newspaper, the Reasoner; he later became a Unitarian minister. With George Sexton, he became a ...
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Frederic Rowland Young was a Secularist lecturer who worked for G. J. Holyoake and wrote for his newspaper, the Reasoner; he later became a Unitarian minister. With George Sexton, he became a Christian apologist and a proponent of Spiritualism. Eventually, he became convinced of the doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Christ and served for a time as a Congregational minister.Less
Frederic Rowland Young was a Secularist lecturer who worked for G. J. Holyoake and wrote for his newspaper, the Reasoner; he later became a Unitarian minister. With George Sexton, he became a Christian apologist and a proponent of Spiritualism. Eventually, he became convinced of the doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Christ and served for a time as a Congregational minister.
David Young
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263395
- eISBN:
- 9780191682520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263395.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Theology
This chapter discusses the journey of Maurice's personal search for a faith that could meet his spiritual needs. His quest for faith led him out of Unitarianism and to the Church of England. He ...
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This chapter discusses the journey of Maurice's personal search for a faith that could meet his spiritual needs. His quest for faith led him out of Unitarianism and to the Church of England. He believed that through Jesus, God has descended into the world of misery to bring back His beloved people to their true home. While his sisters joined the mainstream Christian Churches and entirely turned their backs on the liberal traditions of their forefathers, Maurice took a tolerant search for truth and unceasingly sought for ways to reconcile with the teachings of his forefathers. Devoted and affectionate to his father, he always sought to heal the divisions that separated his family. While critics bombard him as a Unitarian and a Universalist cloaked in his orthodoxy, Maurice was moved by the personal nature of his faith. Many of Maurice's books suggest that the divine friend helped him to range far and wide theologically and undeniably Maurice was committed to that divine friend. In the early years, Maurice's faith was fed and nurtured among Unitarians, but as it matured it retained the marks of its beginnings and a deep thankfulness for the blessings attached to it.Less
This chapter discusses the journey of Maurice's personal search for a faith that could meet his spiritual needs. His quest for faith led him out of Unitarianism and to the Church of England. He believed that through Jesus, God has descended into the world of misery to bring back His beloved people to their true home. While his sisters joined the mainstream Christian Churches and entirely turned their backs on the liberal traditions of their forefathers, Maurice took a tolerant search for truth and unceasingly sought for ways to reconcile with the teachings of his forefathers. Devoted and affectionate to his father, he always sought to heal the divisions that separated his family. While critics bombard him as a Unitarian and a Universalist cloaked in his orthodoxy, Maurice was moved by the personal nature of his faith. Many of Maurice's books suggest that the divine friend helped him to range far and wide theologically and undeniably Maurice was committed to that divine friend. In the early years, Maurice's faith was fed and nurtured among Unitarians, but as it matured it retained the marks of its beginnings and a deep thankfulness for the blessings attached to it.
Gary Scott Smith
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195300604
- eISBN:
- 9780199785285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300604.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
While many of George Washington’s contemporaries portrayed him as a devout Christian, Thomas Jefferson’s foes depicted him as an infidel and an atheist. Given how similar their religious views and ...
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While many of George Washington’s contemporaries portrayed him as a devout Christian, Thomas Jefferson’s foes depicted him as an infidel and an atheist. Given how similar their religious views and practices were, these radically different appraisals of Washington and Jefferson are ironic. Religion mesmerized, tantalized, alarmed, and sometimes inspired Jefferson, and he discussed religious issues, movements, and leaders often in his conversation and correspondence and occasionally in his addresses and published writings. Religious issues played a major role in Jefferson’s life and presidency. He wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) that disestablished the Episcopal Church, enshrined the principle of freedom of conscience, and helped prepare the way for the First Amendment. Since 1947 his metaphor of a “wall of separation” between church and state has dominated constitutional debate over the proper place of religion in public life and policy. Although he repudiated much of orthodox Christianity, the Virginian was a deeply religious man. Jefferson’s alleged lack of faith was a major issue in the hotly contested election of 1800. In an effort to discover the historical Jesus, he devised two different editions of the Gospels for his own use that eliminated all miraculous elements and focused on Christ’s ethical teachings. Although his supporters, his opponents, and academicians have, for the past two centuries, debated the nature of his faith and whether he should be labeled an Episcopalian, a deist, or a Unitarian, many scholars do not recognize how important Jefferson’s religious convictions were to his philosophy of government and career. Jefferson’s character and views of slavery are also examined.Less
While many of George Washington’s contemporaries portrayed him as a devout Christian, Thomas Jefferson’s foes depicted him as an infidel and an atheist. Given how similar their religious views and practices were, these radically different appraisals of Washington and Jefferson are ironic. Religion mesmerized, tantalized, alarmed, and sometimes inspired Jefferson, and he discussed religious issues, movements, and leaders often in his conversation and correspondence and occasionally in his addresses and published writings. Religious issues played a major role in Jefferson’s life and presidency. He wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) that disestablished the Episcopal Church, enshrined the principle of freedom of conscience, and helped prepare the way for the First Amendment. Since 1947 his metaphor of a “wall of separation” between church and state has dominated constitutional debate over the proper place of religion in public life and policy. Although he repudiated much of orthodox Christianity, the Virginian was a deeply religious man. Jefferson’s alleged lack of faith was a major issue in the hotly contested election of 1800. In an effort to discover the historical Jesus, he devised two different editions of the Gospels for his own use that eliminated all miraculous elements and focused on Christ’s ethical teachings. Although his supporters, his opponents, and academicians have, for the past two centuries, debated the nature of his faith and whether he should be labeled an Episcopalian, a deist, or a Unitarian, many scholars do not recognize how important Jefferson’s religious convictions were to his philosophy of government and career. Jefferson’s character and views of slavery are also examined.
David D. Hall
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390971
- eISBN:
- 9780199777099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390971.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Church History
At the end of the first-ever National Council of Congregational Churches (1865), Congregationalists were reluctant to embrace either the figure of John Calvin or the words that descend from him ...
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At the end of the first-ever National Council of Congregational Churches (1865), Congregationalists were reluctant to embrace either the figure of John Calvin or the words that descend from him (Calvinistic, Calvinism). Why? This question animates the chapter. The story starts with the Unitarian controversy of the 1820s and 1830s when newly self-identified "Unitarians" disputed the legitimacy of Calvinism with their orthodox opponents. Thereafter, the chapter turns to the debates at the National Council and, at the end of the century, a New England Congregationalist’s (Williston Walker) study of Calvin. It concludes with the problem of Calvin and Calvinism within American Puritan studies as refracted through the writings of the most significant American student of Puritanism, Perry Miller. The more that nineteenth-century liberal Protestants distanced themselves from the Reformation, the more they caricatured Calvin and Calvinism. Some of the ironies and contradictions of that process will be noted.Less
At the end of the first-ever National Council of Congregational Churches (1865), Congregationalists were reluctant to embrace either the figure of John Calvin or the words that descend from him (Calvinistic, Calvinism). Why? This question animates the chapter. The story starts with the Unitarian controversy of the 1820s and 1830s when newly self-identified "Unitarians" disputed the legitimacy of Calvinism with their orthodox opponents. Thereafter, the chapter turns to the debates at the National Council and, at the end of the century, a New England Congregationalist’s (Williston Walker) study of Calvin. It concludes with the problem of Calvin and Calvinism within American Puritan studies as refracted through the writings of the most significant American student of Puritanism, Perry Miller. The more that nineteenth-century liberal Protestants distanced themselves from the Reformation, the more they caricatured Calvin and Calvinism. Some of the ironies and contradictions of that process will be noted.
Steven K. Green
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195399677
- eISBN:
- 9780199777150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195399677.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religion and Society
This chapter traces the final political disestablishment in three New England states: New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. It examines the competing understandings of disestablishment ...
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This chapter traces the final political disestablishment in three New England states: New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. It examines the competing understandings of disestablishment during this period among Republicans, members of the Congregationalist Standing Order, and jurists.Less
This chapter traces the final political disestablishment in three New England states: New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. It examines the competing understandings of disestablishment during this period among Republicans, members of the Congregationalist Standing Order, and jurists.
J. Rixey Ruffin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195326512
- eISBN:
- 9780199870417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326512.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Ultimately, in politics as well as in religion, Bentley's projects came to little. For while he had led the Republicans to success, that very success then led them to abandon him. The party would ...
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Ultimately, in politics as well as in religion, Bentley's projects came to little. For while he had led the Republicans to success, that very success then led them to abandon him. The party would grow ever larger and more influential, but the tenor of the party changed too, away from the rationalist, libertarian egalitarianism that Bentley wanted it to have. Meanwhile, his efforts to convert Americans to Unitarian Christian naturalism came to even less. His church actually shrank and was the only congregation in Salem to do so, for it was the age of the Second Great Awakening, and Bentley could only stand by and watch as many more Americans moved toward an evangelical, experientialist version of Christianity rather toward his side. This chapter offers some explanations for these failures, in the limited appeal of his desires for a free America, compared to those of most Americans, and the failure of his Christian naturalism to meet the spiritual, communal, and emotional needs of those who looked to their Christianity to provide more than just a rationally consistent explanation of the world.Less
Ultimately, in politics as well as in religion, Bentley's projects came to little. For while he had led the Republicans to success, that very success then led them to abandon him. The party would grow ever larger and more influential, but the tenor of the party changed too, away from the rationalist, libertarian egalitarianism that Bentley wanted it to have. Meanwhile, his efforts to convert Americans to Unitarian Christian naturalism came to even less. His church actually shrank and was the only congregation in Salem to do so, for it was the age of the Second Great Awakening, and Bentley could only stand by and watch as many more Americans moved toward an evangelical, experientialist version of Christianity rather toward his side. This chapter offers some explanations for these failures, in the limited appeal of his desires for a free America, compared to those of most Americans, and the failure of his Christian naturalism to meet the spiritual, communal, and emotional needs of those who looked to their Christianity to provide more than just a rationally consistent explanation of the world.
Cynthia Tucker
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390209
- eISBN:
- 9780199866670
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390209.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This biography follows three generations of ministers' mothers, daughters, and wives as their family—one of America's foremost Unitarian dynasties—spreads out across the continent and their liberal ...
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This biography follows three generations of ministers' mothers, daughters, and wives as their family—one of America's foremost Unitarian dynasties—spreads out across the continent and their liberal denomination evolves. The oldest Eliot women remember its quickening in the early 1800s, and the youngest, its formal consolidation in 1961 with the kindred Universalist Church of America. Shifting the focus from pulpits to parsonages, and from sermons to doubting pews, Tucker lifts up a long‐ignored female perspective and humanizes a famously staid and cerebral religious tradition. The narrative organizes itself as a series of stories, all shaped by defining experiences that are interrelated and timeless. These range from the deaths of young children and the anguish of infertility to the suffocation of small parish life, loneliness, doubt, and financial distress. One woman survives with the help of a rare female confidant in the parish. Another is braced by the unmet friends who read magazines that publish her poems. A third escapes from an ill‐fitting role by succumbing to neurasthenia, leaving one wasting condition for another. It is left to the matriarch's granddaughters to script larger lives for themselves by bypassing marriage and churchly employment to follow their hearts into same‐sex unions and major careers in public health and preschool education. Thematically, these stories are linked by the women's continuing battles to make themselves heard through the din of clerical wisdom that contradicts their reality.Less
This biography follows three generations of ministers' mothers, daughters, and wives as their family—one of America's foremost Unitarian dynasties—spreads out across the continent and their liberal denomination evolves. The oldest Eliot women remember its quickening in the early 1800s, and the youngest, its formal consolidation in 1961 with the kindred Universalist Church of America. Shifting the focus from pulpits to parsonages, and from sermons to doubting pews, Tucker lifts up a long‐ignored female perspective and humanizes a famously staid and cerebral religious tradition. The narrative organizes itself as a series of stories, all shaped by defining experiences that are interrelated and timeless. These range from the deaths of young children and the anguish of infertility to the suffocation of small parish life, loneliness, doubt, and financial distress. One woman survives with the help of a rare female confidant in the parish. Another is braced by the unmet friends who read magazines that publish her poems. A third escapes from an ill‐fitting role by succumbing to neurasthenia, leaving one wasting condition for another. It is left to the matriarch's granddaughters to script larger lives for themselves by bypassing marriage and churchly employment to follow their hearts into same‐sex unions and major careers in public health and preschool education. Thematically, these stories are linked by the women's continuing battles to make themselves heard through the din of clerical wisdom that contradicts their reality.
Cynthia Grant Tucker
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390209
- eISBN:
- 9780199866670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390209.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
After earning a B.A. at Radcliffe and spending five disillusioning years working with social relief agencies, Abby Adams Eliot is asked by the Women's Education Association of Boston to start a ...
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After earning a B.A. at Radcliffe and spending five disillusioning years working with social relief agencies, Abby Adams Eliot is asked by the Women's Education Association of Boston to start a nursery school in the city. They send her to London to study the concept at Rachel McMillan's training center. Upon her return, she opens the Ruggles Street Nursery and Training School and remains its director for thirty years. Abby finds her life partner in Anna Evelyth Holman, who in 1919, goes to war‐torn France with the Radcliffe Unit to help the Red Cross. Back home, Anna teaches science at the Winsor School in Boston, while Abby carries her expertise to Unitarian Sunday School programs and helps Sophia Fahs in her effort to modernize the curriculum. After her mother's death, Abby becomes the matriarch of Camp Maple Hill.Less
After earning a B.A. at Radcliffe and spending five disillusioning years working with social relief agencies, Abby Adams Eliot is asked by the Women's Education Association of Boston to start a nursery school in the city. They send her to London to study the concept at Rachel McMillan's training center. Upon her return, she opens the Ruggles Street Nursery and Training School and remains its director for thirty years. Abby finds her life partner in Anna Evelyth Holman, who in 1919, goes to war‐torn France with the Radcliffe Unit to help the Red Cross. Back home, Anna teaches science at the Winsor School in Boston, while Abby carries her expertise to Unitarian Sunday School programs and helps Sophia Fahs in her effort to modernize the curriculum. After her mother's death, Abby becomes the matriarch of Camp Maple Hill.
Cynthia Grant Tucker
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390209
- eISBN:
- 9780199866670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390209.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
For Etta's daughter Dorothea Dix Eliot (1871‐1957), who marries her father's associate pastor, Earl Morse Wilbur (1866‐1956), in 1898, a major challenge is teaching her husband to stay in tune with ...
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For Etta's daughter Dorothea Dix Eliot (1871‐1957), who marries her father's associate pastor, Earl Morse Wilbur (1866‐1956), in 1898, a major challenge is teaching her husband to stay in tune with his family's needs and the politics of his profession. Taken first to a small, stingy parish in Meadville, PA, and then to Berkeley, CA, where Earl tries to run a new Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry—today's Starr King—with almost no budget, Dodie must live with the poverty Etta had only imagined. More protective of her inherited caste because of their insufficiency, she lectures Earl on how to keep low‐paid domestics busy and humble. After struggling with infertility before a daughter is born, her dependency on a lower‐class midwife is further mortification. Later, the tragic death of her college‐age son dislodges her faith, and she dies a confessed agnostic.Less
For Etta's daughter Dorothea Dix Eliot (1871‐1957), who marries her father's associate pastor, Earl Morse Wilbur (1866‐1956), in 1898, a major challenge is teaching her husband to stay in tune with his family's needs and the politics of his profession. Taken first to a small, stingy parish in Meadville, PA, and then to Berkeley, CA, where Earl tries to run a new Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry—today's Starr King—with almost no budget, Dodie must live with the poverty Etta had only imagined. More protective of her inherited caste because of their insufficiency, she lectures Earl on how to keep low‐paid domestics busy and humble. After struggling with infertility before a daughter is born, her dependency on a lower‐class midwife is further mortification. Later, the tragic death of her college‐age son dislodges her faith, and she dies a confessed agnostic.
Alan Ruston
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199545247
- eISBN:
- 9780191725708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545247.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Chapter 7 outlines the history of Unitarian hymnody from its origins in English Presbyterianism in the eighteenth century to the denominational hymn-books of the early twentieth. The mid nineteenth ...
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Chapter 7 outlines the history of Unitarian hymnody from its origins in English Presbyterianism in the eighteenth century to the denominational hymn-books of the early twentieth. The mid nineteenth century saw the publication of a variety of hymn-books, each reflecting the variations in the evolution of Unitarian thought. The pioneering collections of James Martineau, Hymns for the Christian Church and Home (1840) and Hymns of Praise and Prayer (1874), are analysed. These books demonstrate the width of his selection of hymns, which included American transcendentalist writers as well as works of Catholic piety. Martineau claimed that he rarely altered the text of hymns, but detailed research has shown that this was not the case. Unitarians were among the last of the dissenting churches to prepare a denominational hymn-book, which first appeared in 1890. By 1914 it had almost wholly replaced Martineau’s collections among Unitarian congregations.Less
Chapter 7 outlines the history of Unitarian hymnody from its origins in English Presbyterianism in the eighteenth century to the denominational hymn-books of the early twentieth. The mid nineteenth century saw the publication of a variety of hymn-books, each reflecting the variations in the evolution of Unitarian thought. The pioneering collections of James Martineau, Hymns for the Christian Church and Home (1840) and Hymns of Praise and Prayer (1874), are analysed. These books demonstrate the width of his selection of hymns, which included American transcendentalist writers as well as works of Catholic piety. Martineau claimed that he rarely altered the text of hymns, but detailed research has shown that this was not the case. Unitarians were among the last of the dissenting churches to prepare a denominational hymn-book, which first appeared in 1890. By 1914 it had almost wholly replaced Martineau’s collections among Unitarian congregations.
Jonathan D. Sassi
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129892
- eISBN:
- 9780199834624
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512989X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a ...
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This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a Christian social ideology, descended from the region's Puritan origins, endured and evolved during the era of the early republic, in contrast to interpretations that emphasize the individualization and secularization of American public life during the period. In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the Congregational clergy articulated a corporate ethic that emphasized the superintendence of divine Providence over communal affairs and the importance of social morality for the survival of the new nation, although Baptists and other religious minorities dissented and called for the disestablishment of Congregationalism. By the early nineteenth century, the first party competition between Federalists and Democratic‐Republicans politicized and transformed the debate over public Christianity. Congregationalists became disillusioned with their prophecies of America's millennial role and soured on their partnership with the Federalist magistracy, while dissenters joined Jeffersonians in agitating for disestablishment. At the same time, however, the Congregationalists found cause for optimism amid the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The experience of Worcester County, Massachusetts was typical, where religious revivals and clerical networking at the grassroots fostered a new vision of the godly community. In the years after 1815 partisan acrimony declined, and the Congregationalists split into Unitarian and orthodox camps. As a result, an evangelical coalition of orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, and others emerged that charted the way for renewed activism on the part of a Christian electorate and mobilized church. The transformed public Christianity of the 1820s and 1830s made a seminal contribution to the emergence of a variety of reform movements, such as temperance, Sabbatarianism, and antislavery.Less
This book analyzes the debate over the proper connection between religion and society that took place in southern New England during the fifty years after the American Revolution. It finds that a Christian social ideology, descended from the region's Puritan origins, endured and evolved during the era of the early republic, in contrast to interpretations that emphasize the individualization and secularization of American public life during the period. In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the Congregational clergy articulated a corporate ethic that emphasized the superintendence of divine Providence over communal affairs and the importance of social morality for the survival of the new nation, although Baptists and other religious minorities dissented and called for the disestablishment of Congregationalism. By the early nineteenth century, the first party competition between Federalists and Democratic‐Republicans politicized and transformed the debate over public Christianity. Congregationalists became disillusioned with their prophecies of America's millennial role and soured on their partnership with the Federalist magistracy, while dissenters joined Jeffersonians in agitating for disestablishment. At the same time, however, the Congregationalists found cause for optimism amid the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The experience of Worcester County, Massachusetts was typical, where religious revivals and clerical networking at the grassroots fostered a new vision of the godly community. In the years after 1815 partisan acrimony declined, and the Congregationalists split into Unitarian and orthodox camps. As a result, an evangelical coalition of orthodox Congregationalists, Baptists, and others emerged that charted the way for renewed activism on the part of a Christian electorate and mobilized church. The transformed public Christianity of the 1820s and 1830s made a seminal contribution to the emergence of a variety of reform movements, such as temperance, Sabbatarianism, and antislavery.
Jonathan D. Sassi
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129892
- eISBN:
- 9780199834624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512989X.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The rise of the first party competition and the electoral successes of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic‐Republican party shook the standing order's eighteenth‐century social ideology to its ...
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The rise of the first party competition and the electoral successes of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic‐Republican party shook the standing order's eighteenth‐century social ideology to its foundations during the dozen years between 1800 and 1812. Congregational ministers were a core element of the Federalist party base, and while they initially responded to the era's political contention with a conservative message that emphasized support for established religion and government in response to the Jeffersonians’ alleged infidelity and anarchy, they soon became frustrated with their counterparts in the civil leadership, who acted more from political expediency than from the clergy's prescribed principles of godly magistracy. At the same time, the outbreak of the Unitarian controversy divided Congregationalists in Massachusetts into Unitarian and orthodox wings, which inhibited them in the competition for adherents. On account of Democratic‐Republican gains, standing‐order ministers also experienced disillusionment with the providential role that they had prophesied for the United States, repudiated the Constitution as a godless document, and spiraled into a mood of apocalyptic doom that reached its height during the War of 1812, when the nation implicitly allied itself with Napoleonic France against Britain. The surging numbers of religious dissenters, meanwhile, gained from the Democratic‐Republicans new electoral coalition partners and more mainstream, Jeffersonian rhetoric, both of which they employed to bring down the standing order, finally achieving the Congregationalists’ disestablishment in Connecticut in 1818.Less
The rise of the first party competition and the electoral successes of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic‐Republican party shook the standing order's eighteenth‐century social ideology to its foundations during the dozen years between 1800 and 1812. Congregational ministers were a core element of the Federalist party base, and while they initially responded to the era's political contention with a conservative message that emphasized support for established religion and government in response to the Jeffersonians’ alleged infidelity and anarchy, they soon became frustrated with their counterparts in the civil leadership, who acted more from political expediency than from the clergy's prescribed principles of godly magistracy. At the same time, the outbreak of the Unitarian controversy divided Congregationalists in Massachusetts into Unitarian and orthodox wings, which inhibited them in the competition for adherents. On account of Democratic‐Republican gains, standing‐order ministers also experienced disillusionment with the providential role that they had prophesied for the United States, repudiated the Constitution as a godless document, and spiraled into a mood of apocalyptic doom that reached its height during the War of 1812, when the nation implicitly allied itself with Napoleonic France against Britain. The surging numbers of religious dissenters, meanwhile, gained from the Democratic‐Republicans new electoral coalition partners and more mainstream, Jeffersonian rhetoric, both of which they employed to bring down the standing order, finally achieving the Congregationalists’ disestablishment in Connecticut in 1818.
Jonathan D. Sassi
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129892
- eISBN:
- 9780199834624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512989X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
After 1815 the intense partisanship of the preceding twenty years largely abated and an Era of Good Feelings dawned. This more placid environment fostered a recrudescence of patriotism among ...
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After 1815 the intense partisanship of the preceding twenty years largely abated and an Era of Good Feelings dawned. This more placid environment fostered a recrudescence of patriotism among Congregational clergymen, who reimagined an important role for the United States in the providential renovation of the world. The disappearance of a common political foe also meant that Unitarian and orthodox Congregationalists were now free to go their separate ways ideologically. The Unitarians retained a hierarchical outlook and defended the traditional Massachusetts establishment until its end in 1833, while the orthodox relied on Christian voters and the revived and mobilized church to promote societal godliness. The new disestablishment position of the orthodox Congregationalists created a convergence of interests with such old dissenting groups as the Baptists and Episcopalians, which led to the coalescence of an evangelical coalition that increasingly predominated in regional and even national culture by the late 1820s.Less
After 1815 the intense partisanship of the preceding twenty years largely abated and an Era of Good Feelings dawned. This more placid environment fostered a recrudescence of patriotism among Congregational clergymen, who reimagined an important role for the United States in the providential renovation of the world. The disappearance of a common political foe also meant that Unitarian and orthodox Congregationalists were now free to go their separate ways ideologically. The Unitarians retained a hierarchical outlook and defended the traditional Massachusetts establishment until its end in 1833, while the orthodox relied on Christian voters and the revived and mobilized church to promote societal godliness. The new disestablishment position of the orthodox Congregationalists created a convergence of interests with such old dissenting groups as the Baptists and Episcopalians, which led to the coalescence of an evangelical coalition that increasingly predominated in regional and even national culture by the late 1820s.
Mark A. Noll
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151114
- eISBN:
- 9780199834532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151119.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these ...
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The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these theologians condemned the revolutions in France and were suspicious of the “infidel” Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison. American Calvinists were, however, not unified; their disputes grew from the different approaches they took to the problems of religious organization and national civilization posed by the new American nation.Less
The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these theologians condemned the revolutions in France and were suspicious of the “infidel” Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison. American Calvinists were, however, not unified; their disputes grew from the different approaches they took to the problems of religious organization and national civilization posed by the new American nation.
Maurice Wiles
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199245918
- eISBN:
- 9780191600814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199245916.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Looks briefly at anti‐Trinitarian tendencies in sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century Britain (with special attention to Ralph Cudworth and John Locke), but concentrates on the eighteenth century, when ...
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Looks briefly at anti‐Trinitarian tendencies in sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century Britain (with special attention to Ralph Cudworth and John Locke), but concentrates on the eighteenth century, when Arianism was a significant feature of the ecclesiastical scene, especially among leading intellectual figures both in the Church of England and among the Presbyterian churches. Detailed studies of the theologies of Isaac Newton, William Whiston, and Samuel Clarke. Traces the collapse of this Arian‐style anti‐Trinitarianism in the Church of England and the tendency of heterodox dissenters, such as Joseph Priestley, to adopt a Unitarian view. Suggests that the diminishing acceptance in the wider culture of belief in a transcendental spirit world was an important factor in that tendency, leading to a third death of Arianism.Less
Looks briefly at anti‐Trinitarian tendencies in sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century Britain (with special attention to Ralph Cudworth and John Locke), but concentrates on the eighteenth century, when Arianism was a significant feature of the ecclesiastical scene, especially among leading intellectual figures both in the Church of England and among the Presbyterian churches. Detailed studies of the theologies of Isaac Newton, William Whiston, and Samuel Clarke. Traces the collapse of this Arian‐style anti‐Trinitarianism in the Church of England and the tendency of heterodox dissenters, such as Joseph Priestley, to adopt a Unitarian view. Suggests that the diminishing acceptance in the wider culture of belief in a transcendental spirit world was an important factor in that tendency, leading to a third death of Arianism.
Dan McKanan
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195145328
- eISBN:
- 9780199834471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195145321.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Examines the rediscovery of imago dei theology by early nineteenth‐century liberal theologians, most especially William Ellery Channing and other Unitarians. This theology was fleshed out by such ...
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Examines the rediscovery of imago dei theology by early nineteenth‐century liberal theologians, most especially William Ellery Channing and other Unitarians. This theology was fleshed out by such sentimental novelists as Catharine Sedgwick, Lydia Maria Child, Eliza Buckminster Lee, and Eliza Sigourney, particularly in their historical fiction on the Puritans. For these writers, Puritan violence against Native Americans and witches was rooted in a false theology that saw God's presence more in the violence of history than in the loving affections of individuals.Less
Examines the rediscovery of imago dei theology by early nineteenth‐century liberal theologians, most especially William Ellery Channing and other Unitarians. This theology was fleshed out by such sentimental novelists as Catharine Sedgwick, Lydia Maria Child, Eliza Buckminster Lee, and Eliza Sigourney, particularly in their historical fiction on the Puritans. For these writers, Puritan violence against Native Americans and witches was rooted in a false theology that saw God's presence more in the violence of history than in the loving affections of individuals.
Margaret Lamberts Bendroth
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195173901
- eISBN:
- 9780199835577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195173902.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Evangelist Billy Sunday’s arrival in Boston demonstrated both the ephemeral nature of urban revivals and their complex role in constructing fundamentalist resistance. Dubbed the “Vaudeville ...
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Evangelist Billy Sunday’s arrival in Boston demonstrated both the ephemeral nature of urban revivals and their complex role in constructing fundamentalist resistance. Dubbed the “Vaudeville revivalist” by his critics, Sunday’s moralistic, combative rhetoric quickly threatened to divide the city’s Protestants into pro- and anti-revivalist camps. But in the end, the Sunday campaign demonstrated the relative weakness of evangelicals in Boston — a prohibition vote in the midst of the campaign went down in defeat — and the relative resilience of liberal Protestants, as the city’s Unitarians launched a vigorous revival of their own in the wake of Sunday’s departure.Less
Evangelist Billy Sunday’s arrival in Boston demonstrated both the ephemeral nature of urban revivals and their complex role in constructing fundamentalist resistance. Dubbed the “Vaudeville revivalist” by his critics, Sunday’s moralistic, combative rhetoric quickly threatened to divide the city’s Protestants into pro- and anti-revivalist camps. But in the end, the Sunday campaign demonstrated the relative weakness of evangelicals in Boston — a prohibition vote in the midst of the campaign went down in defeat — and the relative resilience of liberal Protestants, as the city’s Unitarians launched a vigorous revival of their own in the wake of Sunday’s departure.
David Young
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263395
- eISBN:
- 9780191682520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263395.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Theology
This chapter focuses on the Unitarians and Unitarian sympathizers that greatly influenced and shaped the thoughts and career of F.D. Maurice. In this chapter, the influences of Henry Solly, James ...
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This chapter focuses on the Unitarians and Unitarian sympathizers that greatly influenced and shaped the thoughts and career of F.D. Maurice. In this chapter, the influences of Henry Solly, James Martineau, the Winkworth sisters, and several other Unitarians and free thinkers are discussed and analyzed.Less
This chapter focuses on the Unitarians and Unitarian sympathizers that greatly influenced and shaped the thoughts and career of F.D. Maurice. In this chapter, the influences of Henry Solly, James Martineau, the Winkworth sisters, and several other Unitarians and free thinkers are discussed and analyzed.
Isabel Rivers
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199227044
- eISBN:
- 9780191739309
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199227044.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter analyses the ways in which this influential devotional work by a Scottish Episcopalian minister and professor of divinity was edited and adapted for different denominations and ...
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This chapter analyses the ways in which this influential devotional work by a Scottish Episcopalian minister and professor of divinity was edited and adapted for different denominations and communities during a period of over 150 years. The manuscript has not previously been described. The principal editions were by the latitudinarian Gilbert Burnet, the Scottish Episcopalian Patrick Cockburn, the Scottish moderate Presbyterian William Wishart, the Arminian Methodist John Wesley, the American Episcopalian William Smith, the Baptist Unitarian Joshua Toulmin, and the Church of Ireland bishop John Jebb. Scougal’s book was transformed from an originally private letter to a female friend into a public means of educating new generations of readers, clerical and lay, male and female, rich and poor, and of combating what its editors from their very different perspectives perceived to be their contemporaries’ false representations of religion.Less
This chapter analyses the ways in which this influential devotional work by a Scottish Episcopalian minister and professor of divinity was edited and adapted for different denominations and communities during a period of over 150 years. The manuscript has not previously been described. The principal editions were by the latitudinarian Gilbert Burnet, the Scottish Episcopalian Patrick Cockburn, the Scottish moderate Presbyterian William Wishart, the Arminian Methodist John Wesley, the American Episcopalian William Smith, the Baptist Unitarian Joshua Toulmin, and the Church of Ireland bishop John Jebb. Scougal’s book was transformed from an originally private letter to a female friend into a public means of educating new generations of readers, clerical and lay, male and female, rich and poor, and of combating what its editors from their very different perspectives perceived to be their contemporaries’ false representations of religion.
Nicholas Roe
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198119692
- eISBN:
- 9780191671197
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119692.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter is a retrospective survey of radical dissent at Cambridge in the decades prior to 1789, focusing upon William Frend and George Dyer as models for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's political ...
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This chapter is a retrospective survey of radical dissent at Cambridge in the decades prior to 1789, focusing upon William Frend and George Dyer as models for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's political career from 1794 onwards. Samuel Taylor Coleridge would forfeit his degree and the chance of a college fellowship. Hence, Coleridge's waggish declaration of his ‘orthodoxy’. As it turned out Coleridge did not sustain the studious promise of his first year at Cambridge, and he left Jesus in December 1794 without sitting his final examinations. The question of subscription on taking his degree did not arise. However, George's worries about Mr. Frend's ‘company‘ were confirmed in Coleridge's emergence as a unitarian, and by the course of his political career after leaving Cambridge. Frend's influence upon Coleridge, in turn, was conditioned by dissenters at Jesus College and in Cambridge town in the years leading up to the French Revolution.Less
This chapter is a retrospective survey of radical dissent at Cambridge in the decades prior to 1789, focusing upon William Frend and George Dyer as models for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's political career from 1794 onwards. Samuel Taylor Coleridge would forfeit his degree and the chance of a college fellowship. Hence, Coleridge's waggish declaration of his ‘orthodoxy’. As it turned out Coleridge did not sustain the studious promise of his first year at Cambridge, and he left Jesus in December 1794 without sitting his final examinations. The question of subscription on taking his degree did not arise. However, George's worries about Mr. Frend's ‘company‘ were confirmed in Coleridge's emergence as a unitarian, and by the course of his political career after leaving Cambridge. Frend's influence upon Coleridge, in turn, was conditioned by dissenters at Jesus College and in Cambridge town in the years leading up to the French Revolution.
