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/9780199287871.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Joseph Barker was a Methodist New Connexion minister, but his evolving religious journey led him to split the denomination. He moved to America and became a leading popular freethinker and anti-Bible ...
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Joseph Barker was a Methodist New Connexion minister, but his evolving religious journey led him to split the denomination. He moved to America and became a leading popular freethinker and anti-Bible lecturer. On his return to England, he was the co-editor with Charles Bradlaugh of the atheistic paper, the National Reformer. Concerns about morality were one factor in his reconversion.Less
Joseph Barker was a Methodist New Connexion minister, but his evolving religious journey led him to split the denomination. He moved to America and became a leading popular freethinker and anti-Bible lecturer. On his return to England, he was the co-editor with Charles Bradlaugh of the atheistic paper, the National Reformer. Concerns about morality were one factor in his reconversion.
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/9780199287871.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The Victorian Secularist movement knew that it was experiencing a crisis of doubt. Freethinkers reconverted because they came to believe that Secularism was merely negative, that it offered no basis ...
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The Victorian Secularist movement knew that it was experiencing a crisis of doubt. Freethinkers reconverted because they came to believe that Secularism was merely negative, that it offered no basis for morality, and that it adhered to a procrustean system of logic. Positively, they were drawn to the Bible and to Jesus of Nazareth, to the realm of the spirit (sometimes through Spiritualism), and to Christians who modeled learning and a commitment to justice. Popular radicals were ahead of members of the social elite when it came to these intellectual trends.Less
The Victorian Secularist movement knew that it was experiencing a crisis of doubt. Freethinkers reconverted because they came to believe that Secularism was merely negative, that it offered no basis for morality, and that it adhered to a procrustean system of logic. Positively, they were drawn to the Bible and to Jesus of Nazareth, to the realm of the spirit (sometimes through Spiritualism), and to Christians who modeled learning and a commitment to justice. Popular radicals were ahead of members of the social elite when it came to these intellectual trends.
Paul Russell
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195110333
- eISBN:
- 9780199872084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195110333.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Although our own contemporaries are widely agreed that Hume's Treatise was largely unconcerned with problems and issues of religion (i.e. on the general assumption that he removed all such material ...
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Although our own contemporaries are widely agreed that Hume's Treatise was largely unconcerned with problems and issues of religion (i.e. on the general assumption that he removed all such material from the Treatise) his early critics took a very different view. This way of reading Hume's Treatise is especially apparent in A Letter from a Gentleman to his friend at Edinburgh, a pamphlet composed by Hume in 1745 in reply to several accusations made against him when he applied for the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University. Among the most important and fundamental “charges” made against Hume are those of “skepticism” and “atheism.” The nature and character of these charges and Hume's replies reveal the particular relevance and role of the (dogmatic) philosophy of Samuel Clarke in this context—as well as the philosophy of Clarke's prominent Scottish disciple Andrew Baxter.Less
Although our own contemporaries are widely agreed that Hume's Treatise was largely unconcerned with problems and issues of religion (i.e. on the general assumption that he removed all such material from the Treatise) his early critics took a very different view. This way of reading Hume's Treatise is especially apparent in A Letter from a Gentleman to his friend at Edinburgh, a pamphlet composed by Hume in 1745 in reply to several accusations made against him when he applied for the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University. Among the most important and fundamental “charges” made against Hume are those of “skepticism” and “atheism.” The nature and character of these charges and Hume's replies reveal the particular relevance and role of the (dogmatic) philosophy of Samuel Clarke in this context—as well as the philosophy of Clarke's prominent Scottish disciple Andrew Baxter.
Geoffrey Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596676
- eISBN:
- 9780191725685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596676.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Religion and Society
This chapter shows how the social and political concerns of Catholics, secularists, and Jews influenced their perceptions of the Exhibition. Just as some Protestants perceived the Exhibition as a ...
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This chapter shows how the social and political concerns of Catholics, secularists, and Jews influenced their perceptions of the Exhibition. Just as some Protestants perceived the Exhibition as a plot by the Papacy, Catholics were prone to criticize the Exhibition as part of an avowed strategy by Protestants to undermine Catholicism. The Exhibition was similarly criticized by the more radical freethinkers and secularists as a capitalist enterprise that perpetuated the oppression of the working classes. However, the Owenites welcomed it as an opportunity to spread their own socialist philosophy. By contrast, the Anglo‐Jewish community evoked the success of Jewish exhibitors in order to refute the view held by many Christians that Jews were inferior.Less
This chapter shows how the social and political concerns of Catholics, secularists, and Jews influenced their perceptions of the Exhibition. Just as some Protestants perceived the Exhibition as a plot by the Papacy, Catholics were prone to criticize the Exhibition as part of an avowed strategy by Protestants to undermine Catholicism. The Exhibition was similarly criticized by the more radical freethinkers and secularists as a capitalist enterprise that perpetuated the oppression of the working classes. However, the Owenites welcomed it as an opportunity to spread their own socialist philosophy. By contrast, the Anglo‐Jewish community evoked the success of Jewish exhibitors in order to refute the view held by many Christians that Jews were inferior.
DAVID WOMERSLEY
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198187332
- eISBN:
- 9780191718861
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187332.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The third instalment of The Decline and Fall (1788) required Gibbon to narrate the rise, growth, and decline of Islam, a subject in which he had been interested since his early youth, and which had ...
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The third instalment of The Decline and Fall (1788) required Gibbon to narrate the rise, growth, and decline of Islam, a subject in which he had been interested since his early youth, and which had also, since the late seventeenth century, been a battleground between the forces of religious orthodoxy and heterodoxy in both England and Europe. This chapter contextualises Gibbon's account in that complex tradition, and shows how he picks his way between the simplified versions both of his critics and of those freethinkers with whom his critics attempted to confuse him. Gibbon's attainment of the desired character of a consummate historian was to some degree facilitated by his clerical opponents.Less
The third instalment of The Decline and Fall (1788) required Gibbon to narrate the rise, growth, and decline of Islam, a subject in which he had been interested since his early youth, and which had also, since the late seventeenth century, been a battleground between the forces of religious orthodoxy and heterodoxy in both England and Europe. This chapter contextualises Gibbon's account in that complex tradition, and shows how he picks his way between the simplified versions both of his critics and of those freethinkers with whom his critics attempted to confuse him. Gibbon's attainment of the desired character of a consummate historian was to some degree facilitated by his clerical opponents.
Leslie Mitchell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199295845
- eISBN:
- 9780191700729
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295845.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Cecil Maurice Bowra learnt, at an early age, that the gods toy with humankind, juggling their fates and destinies with unblinking callousness. When he later discovered that some Greeks held the same ...
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Cecil Maurice Bowra learnt, at an early age, that the gods toy with humankind, juggling their fates and destinies with unblinking callousness. When he later discovered that some Greeks held the same view, he could hardly have been surprised. The mystery could never be sorted out. Ambiguity was everywhere. Bowra's father had been a freethinker, proudly proclaiming himself a pupil of T. H. Huxley and his friends, who had given the late Victorian Church such a drubbing. Yet the diary of Edward Bowra records a regular pattern of family churchgoing. Similarly, no issue divided Maurice's friends more. Some, like John Betjeman, always insisted that the Warden had had a lively belief in an afterlife; others were adamant that he had none whatever. It was a confusion that almost certainly reflected the true state of Bowra's mind.Less
Cecil Maurice Bowra learnt, at an early age, that the gods toy with humankind, juggling their fates and destinies with unblinking callousness. When he later discovered that some Greeks held the same view, he could hardly have been surprised. The mystery could never be sorted out. Ambiguity was everywhere. Bowra's father had been a freethinker, proudly proclaiming himself a pupil of T. H. Huxley and his friends, who had given the late Victorian Church such a drubbing. Yet the diary of Edward Bowra records a regular pattern of family churchgoing. Similarly, no issue divided Maurice's friends more. Some, like John Betjeman, always insisted that the Warden had had a lively belief in an afterlife; others were adamant that he had none whatever. It was a confusion that almost certainly reflected the true state of Bowra's mind.
April R. Haynes
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226284590
- eISBN:
- 9780226284767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226284767.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
“The Gender of Solitary Vice” argues that the solitary vice became an issue of major concern in the United States only after Sylvester Graham began offering identical sexual advice to women and men. ...
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“The Gender of Solitary Vice” argues that the solitary vice became an issue of major concern in the United States only after Sylvester Graham began offering identical sexual advice to women and men. The eighteenth-century British text Onania, aimed primarily at men, had drawn little attention in North America. But violent reaction to Graham’s “Lecture to Mothers” in 1833 introduced large numbers of Americans to the idea that masturbation caused disease, insanity, and death. Graham contended that the same physiological laws governed male and female passion and exhorted each woman to take control of her own sexual life. Unlike contemporary freethinkers who made similar arguments, he advised women to abstain from the solitary vice and marital excess. The chapter recounts Graham’s early career and alliance with moral like John R. McDowall. It also identifies self-avowed libertines among mob leaders. Reform women responded to the riots by asserting their right to learn about physiology, defining virtue as the conquest of passion in obedience to the laws of health, and arguing that virtue rather than gender should define citizenship. Adapting solitary vice discourse to express their own sexual subjectivity, female moral reformers initiated the first national crusade against masturbation.Less
“The Gender of Solitary Vice” argues that the solitary vice became an issue of major concern in the United States only after Sylvester Graham began offering identical sexual advice to women and men. The eighteenth-century British text Onania, aimed primarily at men, had drawn little attention in North America. But violent reaction to Graham’s “Lecture to Mothers” in 1833 introduced large numbers of Americans to the idea that masturbation caused disease, insanity, and death. Graham contended that the same physiological laws governed male and female passion and exhorted each woman to take control of her own sexual life. Unlike contemporary freethinkers who made similar arguments, he advised women to abstain from the solitary vice and marital excess. The chapter recounts Graham’s early career and alliance with moral like John R. McDowall. It also identifies self-avowed libertines among mob leaders. Reform women responded to the riots by asserting their right to learn about physiology, defining virtue as the conquest of passion in obedience to the laws of health, and arguing that virtue rather than gender should define citizenship. Adapting solitary vice discourse to express their own sexual subjectivity, female moral reformers initiated the first national crusade against masturbation.
David Bebbington
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199575480
- eISBN:
- 9780191741449
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575480.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
A revival took place at Washington-on-the-Brazos in the newly independent state of Texas in 1841. Nearly all the inhabitants of the small town attended, a high proportion became converts and the ...
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A revival took place at Washington-on-the-Brazos in the newly independent state of Texas in 1841. Nearly all the inhabitants of the small town attended, a high proportion became converts and the revival spread to adjacent places. The Baptists who promoted the awakening were successful in vanquishing the rough culture of the town. They brought the leading freethinkers of Washington to Christian allegiance. By accepting much of the thought of the Enlightenment, the moderate Baptists identified with the revival overcame their more traditional co-religionists who wanted nothing to do with organised missions or colleges. Yet the participants in the event resisted more extreme version of the Enlightenment embodied in the views of the Campbellites. The revival reveals much of the ideological struggle of the times to shape the future of Texas.Less
A revival took place at Washington-on-the-Brazos in the newly independent state of Texas in 1841. Nearly all the inhabitants of the small town attended, a high proportion became converts and the revival spread to adjacent places. The Baptists who promoted the awakening were successful in vanquishing the rough culture of the town. They brought the leading freethinkers of Washington to Christian allegiance. By accepting much of the thought of the Enlightenment, the moderate Baptists identified with the revival overcame their more traditional co-religionists who wanted nothing to do with organised missions or colleges. Yet the participants in the event resisted more extreme version of the Enlightenment embodied in the views of the Campbellites. The revival reveals much of the ideological struggle of the times to shape the future of Texas.
David Burns
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199929504
- eISBN:
- 9780199315963
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199929504.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book contends that the influence of biblical criticism in America was more widespread than previously thought. It proves this point by uncovering the hidden history of the radical historical ...
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This book contends that the influence of biblical criticism in America was more widespread than previously thought. It proves this point by uncovering the hidden history of the radical historical Jesus, a construct created and sustained by freethinkers, feminists, socialists, and anarchists during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. This exploration provides a new narrative revealing that Cyrenus Osborne Ward, Caroline Bartlett, George Herron, Bouck White, and other radical religionists had an impact on the history of religion in America rivaling that of recognized religious intellectuals such as Shailer Mathews, Charles Briggs, Francis Peabody, and Walter Rauschenbusch. The methods and approaches utilized by radical religionists were different than those employed by elite liberal divines, however, and part of a larger struggle over the relationship between religion and civilization. There were numerous reasons for this conflict, but the primary one was that radicals used Ernest Renan’s The Life of Jesus to create an imaginative brand of biblical criticism that struck a balance between the demands of reason and the doctrines of religion. Thus, while radical religionists like Robert Ingersoll, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Eugene Debs were secular-minded thinkers who sought to purge Christianity of its supernatural dimensions, they believed the religious imagination that enabled modern-day radicals to make common cause with an ancient peasant from Galilee was something wonderful.Less
This book contends that the influence of biblical criticism in America was more widespread than previously thought. It proves this point by uncovering the hidden history of the radical historical Jesus, a construct created and sustained by freethinkers, feminists, socialists, and anarchists during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. This exploration provides a new narrative revealing that Cyrenus Osborne Ward, Caroline Bartlett, George Herron, Bouck White, and other radical religionists had an impact on the history of religion in America rivaling that of recognized religious intellectuals such as Shailer Mathews, Charles Briggs, Francis Peabody, and Walter Rauschenbusch. The methods and approaches utilized by radical religionists were different than those employed by elite liberal divines, however, and part of a larger struggle over the relationship between religion and civilization. There were numerous reasons for this conflict, but the primary one was that radicals used Ernest Renan’s The Life of Jesus to create an imaginative brand of biblical criticism that struck a balance between the demands of reason and the doctrines of religion. Thus, while radical religionists like Robert Ingersoll, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Eugene Debs were secular-minded thinkers who sought to purge Christianity of its supernatural dimensions, they believed the religious imagination that enabled modern-day radicals to make common cause with an ancient peasant from Galilee was something wonderful.
Nigel Smith
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300112214
- eISBN:
- 9780300168396
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300112214.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
The seventeenth-century poet Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) is one of the most intriguing figures in English literature. A noted civil servant under Cromwell's Protectorate, he has been variously ...
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The seventeenth-century poet Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) is one of the most intriguing figures in English literature. A noted civil servant under Cromwell's Protectorate, he has been variously identified as a patriot, spy, conspirator, concealed homosexual, father to the liberal tradition, and incendiary satirical pamphleteer and freethinker. But while Marvell's poetry and prose have attracted a wide modern following, his prose is known only to specialists, and much of his personal life remains shrouded in mystery. This biography provides a look into Marvell's life, from his early employment as a tutor and gentleman's companion to his suspicious death, reputedly a politically fueled poisoning. Drawing on exhaustive archival research, the voluminous corpus of Marvell's previously little-known writing, and recent scholarship across several disciplines, the author's portrait becomes the definitive account of this elusive life.Less
The seventeenth-century poet Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) is one of the most intriguing figures in English literature. A noted civil servant under Cromwell's Protectorate, he has been variously identified as a patriot, spy, conspirator, concealed homosexual, father to the liberal tradition, and incendiary satirical pamphleteer and freethinker. But while Marvell's poetry and prose have attracted a wide modern following, his prose is known only to specialists, and much of his personal life remains shrouded in mystery. This biography provides a look into Marvell's life, from his early employment as a tutor and gentleman's companion to his suspicious death, reputedly a politically fueled poisoning. Drawing on exhaustive archival research, the voluminous corpus of Marvell's previously little-known writing, and recent scholarship across several disciplines, the author's portrait becomes the definitive account of this elusive life.
Paolo D’Iorio
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226164564
- eISBN:
- 9780226288659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226288659.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter follows Nietzsche's path as he travels to Sorrento. It relates Meysenbug's passionate desire to help him recover his health and her organization of the journey as well as the stay. It ...
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This chapter follows Nietzsche's path as he travels to Sorrento. It relates Meysenbug's passionate desire to help him recover his health and her organization of the journey as well as the stay. It explores in great detail Nietzsche's encounter with a young woman named Isabelle von der Pahlen on a night train in Italy, who claims, in her autobiography, to have coined the term "Free Spirit" in her conversation with Nietzsche on this occasion, as a preferable alternative to "freethinker." D'Iorio then leads us through the textual genesis, in Nietzsche's writings, of the notion of the Free Spirit, its connection to the idea of The Light Life (Das leichte Leben), and the meaning it comes to have in Things Human, All Too Human, as a term for one who lives and thinks differently from the way in which the determining factors of his socio-economic position would predict. The chapter ends with Nietzsche's arrival in Naples and his experience of release and connection to truth in the Southern landscape. D'Iorio quotes the phrase Nietzsche writes in his notebook, upon his arrival: "I have enough spirit for the South."Less
This chapter follows Nietzsche's path as he travels to Sorrento. It relates Meysenbug's passionate desire to help him recover his health and her organization of the journey as well as the stay. It explores in great detail Nietzsche's encounter with a young woman named Isabelle von der Pahlen on a night train in Italy, who claims, in her autobiography, to have coined the term "Free Spirit" in her conversation with Nietzsche on this occasion, as a preferable alternative to "freethinker." D'Iorio then leads us through the textual genesis, in Nietzsche's writings, of the notion of the Free Spirit, its connection to the idea of The Light Life (Das leichte Leben), and the meaning it comes to have in Things Human, All Too Human, as a term for one who lives and thinks differently from the way in which the determining factors of his socio-economic position would predict. The chapter ends with Nietzsche's arrival in Naples and his experience of release and connection to truth in the Southern landscape. D'Iorio quotes the phrase Nietzsche writes in his notebook, upon his arrival: "I have enough spirit for the South."
Kirwin R. Shaffer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037641
- eISBN:
- 9780252094903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037641.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter explores how some anarchists aligned themselves with the emerging freethinkers' movement centered in the southern city of Ponce to address educational issues on the island. The Puerto ...
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This chapter explores how some anarchists aligned themselves with the emerging freethinkers' movement centered in the southern city of Ponce to address educational issues on the island. The Puerto Rican Left had been founding CESs since the end of the nineteenth century, which gave workers a source of radicalized education. While the freethinkers were mostly middle-class professionals, they shared with anarchists a fervent belief in free expression and freedom of speech. In addition, both anarchists and freethinkers condemned what they saw as the influence of religion on society, especially in education. As a result, both called for rationalist education modeled after the ideals and Modern Schools in Spain developed by Francisco Ferrer y Guardia.Less
This chapter explores how some anarchists aligned themselves with the emerging freethinkers' movement centered in the southern city of Ponce to address educational issues on the island. The Puerto Rican Left had been founding CESs since the end of the nineteenth century, which gave workers a source of radicalized education. While the freethinkers were mostly middle-class professionals, they shared with anarchists a fervent belief in free expression and freedom of speech. In addition, both anarchists and freethinkers condemned what they saw as the influence of religion on society, especially in education. As a result, both called for rationalist education modeled after the ideals and Modern Schools in Spain developed by Francisco Ferrer y Guardia.
Daniel Laqua
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780719088834
- eISBN:
- 9781781706183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719088834.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
The culture wars between Catholics and secularists were at once inter- and transnational: international, because they occurred in many different countries, and transnational, because both camps ...
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The culture wars between Catholics and secularists were at once inter- and transnational: international, because they occurred in many different countries, and transnational, because both camps maintained connections across national borders. In Belgium, such conflicts manifested themselves in the ‘School Wars’ of 1879–84. During the subsequent decades, the relationship between state and church continued to be heavily contested. As a result, the country became a key site for two competing kinds of internationalism: one based on Catholic beliefs, the other underpinned by secular principles. The country was a major hub for political Catholicism and Catholic lay activism, yet it also hosted an international organisation of secularists, the International Freethought Federation. As a whole, this chapter analyses the conflict between Catholic and secularist internationalism. It discusses their respective associational guises, but also the ways in which they engaged with questions of science, nationhood and social justice.Less
The culture wars between Catholics and secularists were at once inter- and transnational: international, because they occurred in many different countries, and transnational, because both camps maintained connections across national borders. In Belgium, such conflicts manifested themselves in the ‘School Wars’ of 1879–84. During the subsequent decades, the relationship between state and church continued to be heavily contested. As a result, the country became a key site for two competing kinds of internationalism: one based on Catholic beliefs, the other underpinned by secular principles. The country was a major hub for political Catholicism and Catholic lay activism, yet it also hosted an international organisation of secularists, the International Freethought Federation. As a whole, this chapter analyses the conflict between Catholic and secularist internationalism. It discusses their respective associational guises, but also the ways in which they engaged with questions of science, nationhood and social justice.
Laura Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719085826
- eISBN:
- 9781781704936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719085826.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter introduces the issue of women's rights in relation to the creation of modern definitions of ‘religion’ and ‘secularism’ in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when feminists ...
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This chapter introduces the issue of women's rights in relation to the creation of modern definitions of ‘religion’ and ‘secularism’ in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when feminists and anti-feminists, Christians and Freethinkers battled over who had women's best interests at heart. These debates were fundamental to the development of feminist thought in England, but have been almost entirely passed over in the historiography of the women's movement. The study treats the subjects not simply as ideologues of infidel feminism but as activists within a movement, whose ideas emerged out of the messy reality of public meetings, arguments, encounters with the enemy and attempts to carve out a space for themselves in a male-dominated world.Less
This chapter introduces the issue of women's rights in relation to the creation of modern definitions of ‘religion’ and ‘secularism’ in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when feminists and anti-feminists, Christians and Freethinkers battled over who had women's best interests at heart. These debates were fundamental to the development of feminist thought in England, but have been almost entirely passed over in the historiography of the women's movement. The study treats the subjects not simply as ideologues of infidel feminism but as activists within a movement, whose ideas emerged out of the messy reality of public meetings, arguments, encounters with the enemy and attempts to carve out a space for themselves in a male-dominated world.
Andrew Cayton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781469607504
- eISBN:
- 9781469608266
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9781469607511_Cayton
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
In 1798, English essayist and novelist William Godwin ignited a transatlantic scandal with Memoirs of the Author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Most controversial were the details of the ...
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In 1798, English essayist and novelist William Godwin ignited a transatlantic scandal with Memoirs of the Author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Most controversial were the details of the romantic liaisons of Godwin's wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, with both American Gilbert Imlay and Godwin himself. Wollstonecraft's life and writings became central to a continuing discussion about love's place in human society. Literary radicals argued that the cultivation of intense friendship could lead to the renovation of social and political institutions, whereas others maintained that these freethinkers were indulging their own desires with a disregard for stability and higher authority. Through correspondence and novels, the author of this book finds an ideal lens to view authors, characters, and readers all debating love's power to alter men and women in the world around them. He argues for Wollstonecraft's and Godwin's enduring influence on fiction published in Great Britain and the United States, and explores Mary Godwin Shelley's endeavors to sustain her mother's faith in romantic love as an engine of social change.Less
In 1798, English essayist and novelist William Godwin ignited a transatlantic scandal with Memoirs of the Author of “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Most controversial were the details of the romantic liaisons of Godwin's wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, with both American Gilbert Imlay and Godwin himself. Wollstonecraft's life and writings became central to a continuing discussion about love's place in human society. Literary radicals argued that the cultivation of intense friendship could lead to the renovation of social and political institutions, whereas others maintained that these freethinkers were indulging their own desires with a disregard for stability and higher authority. Through correspondence and novels, the author of this book finds an ideal lens to view authors, characters, and readers all debating love's power to alter men and women in the world around them. He argues for Wollstonecraft's and Godwin's enduring influence on fiction published in Great Britain and the United States, and explores Mary Godwin Shelley's endeavors to sustain her mother's faith in romantic love as an engine of social change.
Rowan Strong
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198724247
- eISBN:
- 9780191791994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198724247.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Church History
On the floating villages that constituted the close confines of emigrant ships, emigrants found themselves encountering both the religiously like-minded and also different others, particularly in the ...
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On the floating villages that constituted the close confines of emigrant ships, emigrants found themselves encountering both the religiously like-minded and also different others, particularly in the cramped conditions of steerage. This chapter looks at the way emigrants began their voyage in ports, and how the Anglican emigrant chaplaincy endeavoured to meet their needs there. It goes on to examine the emigrant voyages and the various Christian practices and beliefs of steerage-class emigrants among the British and Irish labouring poor and skilled working class in steerage. Looking at the Christian denominations among these passengers, and draws out major areas of their religious lives, including the Bible, providence, death, worship and hymn-singing, temperance, sex, reading, and encounters between Christians and the religiously indifferent or disbelieving. It concludes by drawing out commonalities many emigrants found across their religious differences, while others found their voyage experience reinforced existing positions and prejudices.Less
On the floating villages that constituted the close confines of emigrant ships, emigrants found themselves encountering both the religiously like-minded and also different others, particularly in the cramped conditions of steerage. This chapter looks at the way emigrants began their voyage in ports, and how the Anglican emigrant chaplaincy endeavoured to meet their needs there. It goes on to examine the emigrant voyages and the various Christian practices and beliefs of steerage-class emigrants among the British and Irish labouring poor and skilled working class in steerage. Looking at the Christian denominations among these passengers, and draws out major areas of their religious lives, including the Bible, providence, death, worship and hymn-singing, temperance, sex, reading, and encounters between Christians and the religiously indifferent or disbelieving. It concludes by drawing out commonalities many emigrants found across their religious differences, while others found their voyage experience reinforced existing positions and prejudices.
Rowan Strong
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198724247
- eISBN:
- 9780191791994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198724247.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Church History
This shorter chapter traces the religion of cabin-class emigrants, who were generally middle-class, so from the section of Victorian society keen to impose their religious and moral positions on the ...
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This shorter chapter traces the religion of cabin-class emigrants, who were generally middle-class, so from the section of Victorian society keen to impose their religious and moral positions on the lower orders. While more segregated from their fellow emigrants in steerage as the century wore on, as emigrants voyaged in larger vessels, cabin passengers had religious encounters within their own class and also beyond. So the chapter looks at the similarities and contrasts with the varieties of Christianity among their fellow emigrants in steerage. Catholic–Protestant, intra-Protestant, and Christian–non-Christian encounters are all examined, as are the markers of cabin-class piety, particularly their expectation of religious leadership in the absence of clergy.Less
This shorter chapter traces the religion of cabin-class emigrants, who were generally middle-class, so from the section of Victorian society keen to impose their religious and moral positions on the lower orders. While more segregated from their fellow emigrants in steerage as the century wore on, as emigrants voyaged in larger vessels, cabin passengers had religious encounters within their own class and also beyond. So the chapter looks at the similarities and contrasts with the varieties of Christianity among their fellow emigrants in steerage. Catholic–Protestant, intra-Protestant, and Christian–non-Christian encounters are all examined, as are the markers of cabin-class piety, particularly their expectation of religious leadership in the absence of clergy.
Kenneth L. Pearce
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198755685
- eISBN:
- 9780191816833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198755685.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
In the Preface to the Three Dialogues, Berkeley says that one of his main aims is to refute the freethinkers. Puzzlingly, however, we are then treated to a dialogue between two Christians in which ...
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In the Preface to the Three Dialogues, Berkeley says that one of his main aims is to refute the freethinkers. Puzzlingly, however, we are then treated to a dialogue between two Christians in which the freethinkers never reappear. This is related to a second, more general puzzle about Berkeley’s religious polemics: although Berkeley says he is defending orthodox conclusions, he also reminds himself in his Notebooks, “To use the utmost Caution not to give the least Handle of offence to the Church or Church-men.” Both of these puzzles are solved by the recognition that the argument against matter in the Three Dialogues is patterned after an argument for atheism that Berkeley attributed to Anthony Collins. Berkeley’s aim is thus to use the freethinkers’ own premises and arguments against them. In doing this, however, he rejects doctrines many churchmen held dear—most notably, the doctrine of divine analogy.Less
In the Preface to the Three Dialogues, Berkeley says that one of his main aims is to refute the freethinkers. Puzzlingly, however, we are then treated to a dialogue between two Christians in which the freethinkers never reappear. This is related to a second, more general puzzle about Berkeley’s religious polemics: although Berkeley says he is defending orthodox conclusions, he also reminds himself in his Notebooks, “To use the utmost Caution not to give the least Handle of offence to the Church or Church-men.” Both of these puzzles are solved by the recognition that the argument against matter in the Three Dialogues is patterned after an argument for atheism that Berkeley attributed to Anthony Collins. Berkeley’s aim is thus to use the freethinkers’ own premises and arguments against them. In doing this, however, he rejects doctrines many churchmen held dear—most notably, the doctrine of divine analogy.
Jetze Touber
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198805007
- eISBN:
- 9780191843112
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198805007.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Chapter 1 homes in on Spinoza as a Bible critic. Based on existing historiography, it parses the main relevant historical contexts in which Spinoza came to articulate his analysis of the Bible: the ...
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Chapter 1 homes in on Spinoza as a Bible critic. Based on existing historiography, it parses the main relevant historical contexts in which Spinoza came to articulate his analysis of the Bible: the Sephardi community of Amsterdam, freethinking philosophers, and the Reformed Church. It concludes with a detailed examination of the Tractatus theologico-politicus, Spinoza’s major work of biblical criticism. Along the way I highlight themes for which Spinoza appealed to the biblical texts themselves: the textual unity of the Bible, and the biblical concepts of prophecy, divine election, and religious laws. The focus is on the biblical arguments for these propositions, and the philological choices that Spinoza made that enabled him to appeal to those specific biblical texts. This first chapter lays the foundation for the remainder of the book, which examines issues of biblical philology and interpretation discussed among the Dutch Reformed contemporaries of Spinoza.Less
Chapter 1 homes in on Spinoza as a Bible critic. Based on existing historiography, it parses the main relevant historical contexts in which Spinoza came to articulate his analysis of the Bible: the Sephardi community of Amsterdam, freethinking philosophers, and the Reformed Church. It concludes with a detailed examination of the Tractatus theologico-politicus, Spinoza’s major work of biblical criticism. Along the way I highlight themes for which Spinoza appealed to the biblical texts themselves: the textual unity of the Bible, and the biblical concepts of prophecy, divine election, and religious laws. The focus is on the biblical arguments for these propositions, and the philological choices that Spinoza made that enabled him to appeal to those specific biblical texts. This first chapter lays the foundation for the remainder of the book, which examines issues of biblical philology and interpretation discussed among the Dutch Reformed contemporaries of Spinoza.
