Paul Helm
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199532186
- eISBN:
- 9780191714580
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199532186.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Calvin at the Centre explores the impact of various ideas on the thought of John Calvin and also that of later theologians who were influenced by him. The book therefore calls into ...
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Calvin at the Centre explores the impact of various ideas on the thought of John Calvin and also that of later theologians who were influenced by him. The book therefore calls into question the attitude that Calvin's views are purely biblical and unaffected by the particular intellectual circumstances in which he lived. It also provides reason for thinking that the relation between Calvin and Calvinism is more complex than is commonly believed. The focus is on philosophical ideas as they find a place within Calvin's theology, and the chapters are organized to reflect this, dealing in turn with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues. So the book follows the general outlook of the author's John Calvin's Ideas (OUP: 2004), but extends its scope and range. The emphasis is upon the coincidence of ideas between Calvin and other thinkers, rather than offering a historical account of how that influence came about. So, for example, there is a study of the extent to which Calvin's view of the atonement is Anselmic in its character, and how Calvin's view was treated in later discussions of the atonement in Puritanism. But the question of the exact ways in which Anselm's ideas came to Calvin's notice is left to one side. Among the topics treated are: the knowledge of God and of ourselves, Scripture and reason, the visibility of God, providence and predestination, Calvin and compatibilism, and the intermediate stateLess
Calvin at the Centre explores the impact of various ideas on the thought of John Calvin and also that of later theologians who were influenced by him. The book therefore calls into question the attitude that Calvin's views are purely biblical and unaffected by the particular intellectual circumstances in which he lived. It also provides reason for thinking that the relation between Calvin and Calvinism is more complex than is commonly believed. The focus is on philosophical ideas as they find a place within Calvin's theology, and the chapters are organized to reflect this, dealing in turn with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues. So the book follows the general outlook of the author's John Calvin's Ideas (OUP: 2004), but extends its scope and range. The emphasis is upon the coincidence of ideas between Calvin and other thinkers, rather than offering a historical account of how that influence came about. So, for example, there is a study of the extent to which Calvin's view of the atonement is Anselmic in its character, and how Calvin's view was treated in later discussions of the atonement in Puritanism. But the question of the exact ways in which Anselm's ideas came to Calvin's notice is left to one side. Among the topics treated are: the knowledge of God and of ourselves, Scripture and reason, the visibility of God, providence and predestination, Calvin and compatibilism, and the intermediate state
John Saillant
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195157178
- eISBN:
- 9780199834617
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157176.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and ...
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In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.Less
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British and American men and women began criticizing the slave trade and slavery as violations of the principles of Christianity, natural rights, and political security. A black spokesman for abolitionism was Lemuel Haynes (1753–1833), one of the first African Americans to publish. Haynes served as a minuteman in the American War of Independence and began writing against the slave trade and slavery in the 1770s. After ordination in a Congregational church, he assumed a pulpit in Rutland, Vermont, where he became a leading controversialist, defender of the theology of Jonathan Edwards, and interpreter of republican ideology. He was dismissed from his pulpit in 1818, because his affiliation to the Federalist Party and his opposition to the War of 1812 offended his congregation. The last 15 years of his life were characterized by pessimism about the ability of Americans of the early republic to defeat racism as well as by a defense of Puritanism, which he believed could guide the creation of a free, harmonious, and integrated society.
Keith Wrightson and David Levine
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203216
- eISBN:
- 9780191675799
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203216.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This book studies the single community in Terling in early modern England and offers an interpretation of the social dynamics of the period. It opens with a chapter establishing this small Essex ...
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This book studies the single community in Terling in early modern England and offers an interpretation of the social dynamics of the period. It opens with a chapter establishing this small Essex parish in the national context of economic and social change in the years between 1525 and 1700. Thereafter the chapters examine the economy of Terling; its demographic history; its social structure; the relationships of the villagers with the courts of the church and state; the growth of popular literacy; the impact of the reformation, and the rise in puritanism. The overall process of change is then characterized in a powerful interpretive chapter on the changing pattern of social relationships in the parish. An additional chapter addresses debate occasioned by the book in its previous edition, notably over kinship relations in early modern England, and the impact of puritanism on local society.Less
This book studies the single community in Terling in early modern England and offers an interpretation of the social dynamics of the period. It opens with a chapter establishing this small Essex parish in the national context of economic and social change in the years between 1525 and 1700. Thereafter the chapters examine the economy of Terling; its demographic history; its social structure; the relationships of the villagers with the courts of the church and state; the growth of popular literacy; the impact of the reformation, and the rise in puritanism. The overall process of change is then characterized in a powerful interpretive chapter on the changing pattern of social relationships in the parish. An additional chapter addresses debate occasioned by the book in its previous edition, notably over kinship relations in early modern England, and the impact of puritanism on local society.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203926
- eISBN:
- 9780191676048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203926.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, History of Religion
At the close of his pioneering study of the period 1658–60, Godfrey Davies suggested six main reasons for the Restoration: the constant unpopularity of the army and of godly reform, the divisions of ...
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At the close of his pioneering study of the period 1658–60, Godfrey Davies suggested six main reasons for the Restoration: the constant unpopularity of the army and of godly reform, the divisions of the republican leaders, the waning of ideological fervour among the soldiers, the lack of interest of the reformers in social evils, the corruption of ‘Puritanism’ by power, and the death of Cromwell who alone had sustained the Interregnum for so long. As the preceding chapter has reworked and supplemented the sources upon which that book was based, this chapter reconsiders these conclusions in turn.Less
At the close of his pioneering study of the period 1658–60, Godfrey Davies suggested six main reasons for the Restoration: the constant unpopularity of the army and of godly reform, the divisions of the republican leaders, the waning of ideological fervour among the soldiers, the lack of interest of the reformers in social evils, the corruption of ‘Puritanism’ by power, and the death of Cromwell who alone had sustained the Interregnum for so long. As the preceding chapter has reworked and supplemented the sources upon which that book was based, this chapter reconsiders these conclusions in turn.
Crawford Gribben
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195325317
- eISBN:
- 9780199785605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195325317.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter documents Irish Cromwellian debates about baptism. Those on the radical left of Puritanism, such as Quakers and Seekers, argued that baptism was redundant in the age of the Spirit. ...
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This chapter documents Irish Cromwellian debates about baptism. Those on the radical left of Puritanism, such as Quakers and Seekers, argued that baptism was redundant in the age of the Spirit. Baptists denied their claims and argued that immersion in water ought to follow conversion. Presbyterians and Independents disagreed, arguing instead that baptism should also be provided for the children of “visible saints” and, it was occasionally claimed, also for the children of those who were not “visible saints.” This chapter demonstrates that both Baptists and those who favored the baptism of children were debating the issue through the lens of covenant theology.Less
This chapter documents Irish Cromwellian debates about baptism. Those on the radical left of Puritanism, such as Quakers and Seekers, argued that baptism was redundant in the age of the Spirit. Baptists denied their claims and argued that immersion in water ought to follow conversion. Presbyterians and Independents disagreed, arguing instead that baptism should also be provided for the children of “visible saints” and, it was occasionally claimed, also for the children of those who were not “visible saints.” This chapter demonstrates that both Baptists and those who favored the baptism of children were debating the issue through the lens of covenant theology.
Gareth Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199295746
- eISBN:
- 9780191711701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295746.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Charles Wesley was a complex man in terms of his denominational identity and this ambiguity is reflected in the Methodist movement that he helped to found. Some of the keys to understanding Charles ...
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Charles Wesley was a complex man in terms of his denominational identity and this ambiguity is reflected in the Methodist movement that he helped to found. Some of the keys to understanding Charles Wesley and his relationship with Methodism, the wider Evangelical Revival, and the Church of England can be found in a childhood shaped by a difficult environment and parents whose own denominational identities were a rich mix of Puritan and High Church Anglican tempered by influences from other Christian traditions. These same ingredients proved to be of fundamental importance in the making of Methodism.Less
Charles Wesley was a complex man in terms of his denominational identity and this ambiguity is reflected in the Methodist movement that he helped to found. Some of the keys to understanding Charles Wesley and his relationship with Methodism, the wider Evangelical Revival, and the Church of England can be found in a childhood shaped by a difficult environment and parents whose own denominational identities were a rich mix of Puritan and High Church Anglican tempered by influences from other Christian traditions. These same ingredients proved to be of fundamental importance in the making of Methodism.
Gareth Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199295746
- eISBN:
- 9780191711701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295746.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The traditional image of Charles Wesley is that of a loyal Anglican whose attachment to the parent Church of England led to his isolation within Methodism in his later years. There is a contradiction ...
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The traditional image of Charles Wesley is that of a loyal Anglican whose attachment to the parent Church of England led to his isolation within Methodism in his later years. There is a contradiction in this viewpoint as Charles Wesley, despite his protestations of Anglican loyalty, contributed a great deal to the establishment of an evangelical popular movement. The more that one examines the activities of Charles Wesley, the clearer it becomes that he was in fact a radical conservative, whose high Sacramental theology was combined with the promotion of new worship practices such as congregational hymn singing and the class meeting. This mix of different elements produced a Methodist movement that was a combination of High Church theology, strict discipline, and innovative forms of structure, devotion, and worship.Less
The traditional image of Charles Wesley is that of a loyal Anglican whose attachment to the parent Church of England led to his isolation within Methodism in his later years. There is a contradiction in this viewpoint as Charles Wesley, despite his protestations of Anglican loyalty, contributed a great deal to the establishment of an evangelical popular movement. The more that one examines the activities of Charles Wesley, the clearer it becomes that he was in fact a radical conservative, whose high Sacramental theology was combined with the promotion of new worship practices such as congregational hymn singing and the class meeting. This mix of different elements produced a Methodist movement that was a combination of High Church theology, strict discipline, and innovative forms of structure, devotion, and worship.
STEVE BRUCE
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199281022
- eISBN:
- 9780191712760
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199281022.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter details the growth of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in Northern Ireland (and its international expansion) and its development of schools, missionary work, and theological ...
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This chapter details the growth of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in Northern Ireland (and its international expansion) and its development of schools, missionary work, and theological training. It considers whether success and increasing public acceptance has moderated the Church's distinctive separatism and its puritanism, and concludes that growth has not resulted in much change yet.Less
This chapter details the growth of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in Northern Ireland (and its international expansion) and its development of schools, missionary work, and theological training. It considers whether success and increasing public acceptance has moderated the Church's distinctive separatism and its puritanism, and concludes that growth has not resulted in much change yet.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The development of pragmatism is the most important achievement in the history of American philosophy. M. Gail Hamner here examines the European roots of the movement in a search for what makes ...
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The development of pragmatism is the most important achievement in the history of American philosophy. M. Gail Hamner here examines the European roots of the movement in a search for what makes pragmatism uniquely American. She argues that the inextricably American character of the pragmatism of such figures as Charles Sanders Peirce and William James lies in its often‐understated affirmation of America as a uniquely religious country with a God‐given mission, and as populated by God‐fearing citizens. By looking at European and British thinkers whom the pragmatists read, Hamner examines how pragmatism's notions of self, nation, and morality were formed in reaction to the work of these thinkers. She finds that the pervasive religiosity of nineteenth‐century American public language underlies Peirce's and James's resistance to aspects of the philosophy and science of their non‐American colleagues. This religiosity, Hamner shows, is linked strongly to the continuing rhetorical power of American Puritanism. Claims made for and about Puritanism were advanced throughout the nineteenth century as rallying cries for specific political, social, and individual changes. It was in this religiously and politically charged environment that Peirce and James received and reinterpreted non‐American voices. Hamner traces the development of pragmatism by analyzing the concepts of consciousness, causality, will, and belief in two German thinkers (Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt) and two Scottish thinkers (William Hamilton and Alexander Bain), and by examining how their ideas were appropriated by Peirce and James. The book is arranged in three main parts: Evolution of German psychology; Evolution of Scottish psychology; and Pragmatic reception of European psychology.Less
The development of pragmatism is the most important achievement in the history of American philosophy. M. Gail Hamner here examines the European roots of the movement in a search for what makes pragmatism uniquely American. She argues that the inextricably American character of the pragmatism of such figures as Charles Sanders Peirce and William James lies in its often‐understated affirmation of America as a uniquely religious country with a God‐given mission, and as populated by God‐fearing citizens. By looking at European and British thinkers whom the pragmatists read, Hamner examines how pragmatism's notions of self, nation, and morality were formed in reaction to the work of these thinkers. She finds that the pervasive religiosity of nineteenth‐century American public language underlies Peirce's and James's resistance to aspects of the philosophy and science of their non‐American colleagues. This religiosity, Hamner shows, is linked strongly to the continuing rhetorical power of American Puritanism. Claims made for and about Puritanism were advanced throughout the nineteenth century as rallying cries for specific political, social, and individual changes. It was in this religiously and politically charged environment that Peirce and James received and reinterpreted non‐American voices. Hamner traces the development of pragmatism by analyzing the concepts of consciousness, causality, will, and belief in two German thinkers (Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt) and two Scottish thinkers (William Hamilton and Alexander Bain), and by examining how their ideas were appropriated by Peirce and James. The book is arranged in three main parts: Evolution of German psychology; Evolution of Scottish psychology; and Pragmatic reception of European psychology.
Stephen Bardle
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199660858
- eISBN:
- 9780191749001
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199660858.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 has commonly been understood as representing a return to political stability and religious consensus following the tumultuous civil wars and Commonwealth ...
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The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 has commonly been understood as representing a return to political stability and religious consensus following the tumultuous civil wars and Commonwealth period. By analysing oppositional, underground texts from 1660–1670 this new study contributes to an ongoing historical re-evaluation of the Restoration period. Stephen Bardle provides a new literary historical narrative of what was in fact one of the most tumultuous periods in English history, when terrible plague, the Great Fire of London, and a brutal war against the Dutch quickly undermined the popularity of the new government. At the heart of the nation’s troubles was a highly divisive religious settlement, enforced through the notorious ‘Clarendon Code’, and which unleashed wave upon wave of religious and political persecution. This book tells the story of three writers who fuelled the flames of opposition by contributing illicit texts to a small yet intense public sphere via the literary underground. Key texts by Andrew Marvell including ‘The Garden’ are set in the context of under-explored works by the poet and pamphleteer George Wither and the indomitable satirist Ralph Wallis. The book draws upon extensive archival research and features neglected manuscript and print sources. As an original study of the Literary Underground which sheds light on the vibrancy of political opposition in the 1660s, this book should be of interest to students of radicalism as well as seventeenth-century historians and literary scholars.Less
The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 has commonly been understood as representing a return to political stability and religious consensus following the tumultuous civil wars and Commonwealth period. By analysing oppositional, underground texts from 1660–1670 this new study contributes to an ongoing historical re-evaluation of the Restoration period. Stephen Bardle provides a new literary historical narrative of what was in fact one of the most tumultuous periods in English history, when terrible plague, the Great Fire of London, and a brutal war against the Dutch quickly undermined the popularity of the new government. At the heart of the nation’s troubles was a highly divisive religious settlement, enforced through the notorious ‘Clarendon Code’, and which unleashed wave upon wave of religious and political persecution. This book tells the story of three writers who fuelled the flames of opposition by contributing illicit texts to a small yet intense public sphere via the literary underground. Key texts by Andrew Marvell including ‘The Garden’ are set in the context of under-explored works by the poet and pamphleteer George Wither and the indomitable satirist Ralph Wallis. The book draws upon extensive archival research and features neglected manuscript and print sources. As an original study of the Literary Underground which sheds light on the vibrancy of political opposition in the 1660s, this book should be of interest to students of radicalism as well as seventeenth-century historians and literary scholars.
Michael Foley
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199232673
- eISBN:
- 9780191716362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232673.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines moral sensitivity in American society. It argues that American public life is pervaded by a profusion of moral reference points and by a drive to justify attitudes and actions ...
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This chapter examines moral sensitivity in American society. It argues that American public life is pervaded by a profusion of moral reference points and by a drive to justify attitudes and actions through recourse to moral criteria. It is this level of moral consciousness in political exchange and argumentation that distinguishes the United States from other western democracies and which gives the conduct of American politics its distinctive character. God as a ubiquitous reference point in American culture, religion and politics, religion and the moral foundations of democracy are discussed.Less
This chapter examines moral sensitivity in American society. It argues that American public life is pervaded by a profusion of moral reference points and by a drive to justify attitudes and actions through recourse to moral criteria. It is this level of moral consciousness in political exchange and argumentation that distinguishes the United States from other western democracies and which gives the conduct of American politics its distinctive character. God as a ubiquitous reference point in American culture, religion and politics, religion and the moral foundations of democracy are discussed.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
American pragmatism is about the only philosophical movement indigenous to the U.S.A., but the question of what is American about it has never really received sustained attention. This is what this ...
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American pragmatism is about the only philosophical movement indigenous to the U.S.A., but the question of what is American about it has never really received sustained attention. This is what this book sets out to do by means of an analysis of the works of two classical American pragmatists (Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) and their continental interlocutors. In answering the question, the book takes the form of a double project: first, American pragmatism marks a repositioning of British and European science, especially psychology, within theories of human knowing and being that emphasize the purposive and disciplined production of the self through habits (Peirce) or will (James); second, the engine of this repositioning is something the author terms America's slippery but persistent Puritan imaginary. The two aspects of the project come together in narratives about subjectivity (in the final two chapters on Peirce and James), since applying the methods and assumptions of natural science to the human self (in psychology) highlights the limitations and aporias of those methods and principles and, for the early pragmatists at least, underscores the necessity of religion. In addition to explaining the context of the book, this introduction describes its organization, the situation in which the philosophy of American pragmatism developed, and the methodology adopted by the book.Less
American pragmatism is about the only philosophical movement indigenous to the U.S.A., but the question of what is American about it has never really received sustained attention. This is what this book sets out to do by means of an analysis of the works of two classical American pragmatists (Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) and their continental interlocutors. In answering the question, the book takes the form of a double project: first, American pragmatism marks a repositioning of British and European science, especially psychology, within theories of human knowing and being that emphasize the purposive and disciplined production of the self through habits (Peirce) or will (James); second, the engine of this repositioning is something the author terms America's slippery but persistent Puritan imaginary. The two aspects of the project come together in narratives about subjectivity (in the final two chapters on Peirce and James), since applying the methods and assumptions of natural science to the human self (in psychology) highlights the limitations and aporias of those methods and principles and, for the early pragmatists at least, underscores the necessity of religion. In addition to explaining the context of the book, this introduction describes its organization, the situation in which the philosophy of American pragmatism developed, and the methodology adopted by the book.
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.
Peter J. Thuesen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390971
- eISBN:
- 9780199777099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390971.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Church History
In June 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe, exhausted from a triumphant publicity tour in England for her antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, crossed the English Channel for a few weeks of leisure travel ...
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In June 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe, exhausted from a triumphant publicity tour in England for her antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, crossed the English Channel for a few weeks of leisure travel on the Continent. One of her first stops was Geneva, which afforded her the chance to reflect on Calvin and his legacy in Western culture. Gazing on the view of Mont Blanc from the city, she wrote: "Calvinism, in its essential features, will never cease from the earth, because the great fundamental facts of nature are Calvinistic, and men with strong minds and wills always discover it." It was a striking statement, given her otherwise tortured relationship to her New England Puritan heritage, but it signaled a theme she would later develop in her fiction in ways that anticipated the arguments of Max Weber a half century later in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This chapter will explore this incident and its ramifications.Less
In June 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe, exhausted from a triumphant publicity tour in England for her antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, crossed the English Channel for a few weeks of leisure travel on the Continent. One of her first stops was Geneva, which afforded her the chance to reflect on Calvin and his legacy in Western culture. Gazing on the view of Mont Blanc from the city, she wrote: "Calvinism, in its essential features, will never cease from the earth, because the great fundamental facts of nature are Calvinistic, and men with strong minds and wills always discover it." It was a striking statement, given her otherwise tortured relationship to her New England Puritan heritage, but it signaled a theme she would later develop in her fiction in ways that anticipated the arguments of Max Weber a half century later in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This chapter will explore this incident and its ramifications.
Peter J. Thuesen
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195174274
- eISBN:
- 9780199872138
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174274.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Church History
In the first millennium of Western Christianity, in the wake of Augustine's conflict with Pelagius, predestination's tension with free will preoccupied the theologians. With the rise of medieval ...
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In the first millennium of Western Christianity, in the wake of Augustine's conflict with Pelagius, predestination's tension with free will preoccupied the theologians. With the rise of medieval Eucharistic devotion, however, the sacraments gained theological prominence. Luther and Calvin's reassertion of Augustine's absolute predestinarianism in the sixteenth century was in large measure a reaction to the perceived abuses of the sacramental system. So began the age of confession writing, when the various Protestant factions crafted careful statements of their respective positions, laying the foundation for the elaborate predestinarianism of Protestant scholasticism. From this context emerged two lasting options—Calvinist and Arminian—that mirrored in certain respects earlier Catholic opinions. Chapter 1 surveys this historical background, concluding with the rise of the zealously Calvinist party in the Church of England, led by William Perkins and others, that would eventually bring strong predestinarianism to America in the form of Puritanism.Less
In the first millennium of Western Christianity, in the wake of Augustine's conflict with Pelagius, predestination's tension with free will preoccupied the theologians. With the rise of medieval Eucharistic devotion, however, the sacraments gained theological prominence. Luther and Calvin's reassertion of Augustine's absolute predestinarianism in the sixteenth century was in large measure a reaction to the perceived abuses of the sacramental system. So began the age of confession writing, when the various Protestant factions crafted careful statements of their respective positions, laying the foundation for the elaborate predestinarianism of Protestant scholasticism. From this context emerged two lasting options—Calvinist and Arminian—that mirrored in certain respects earlier Catholic opinions. Chapter 1 surveys this historical background, concluding with the rise of the zealously Calvinist party in the Church of England, led by William Perkins and others, that would eventually bring strong predestinarianism to America in the form of Puritanism.
Amanda Porterfield
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131376
- eISBN:
- 9780199834570
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131371.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Religious life in the U.S. underwent a profound change in the late twentieth century as divisions between different religious groups softened, exposure to various religions increased, and Americans ...
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Religious life in the U.S. underwent a profound change in the late twentieth century as divisions between different religious groups softened, exposure to various religions increased, and Americans experienced growing interest in personalized forms of religious experience. The surge of interest in personalized forms of spirituality coincided with the decline in the mainstream Protestant institutions that had once dominated American religion and shaped American culture. It also coincided with the criticism of American arrogance, the debacle in Vietnam, and the defeat of victory culture. Nevertheless, even as patriotic optimism and the authority of Protestant institutions declined, Protestant influence persisted in the celebration of individual religious experience, and in the tendency to place the authority of individual experience above that of established institutions and official hierarchies. Late twentieth‐century American spirituality reflected the Protestant tendency to individualism underlying American religious life, even as it also reflected the mainstreaming of Catholicism in American culture, and an unprecedented interest in, and freedom for, other religions. The book traces some of the antecedents of this recent awakening to the spirituality of American Transcendentalism in the nineteenth century and, before that, to New England Puritanism and its investment in the Holy Spirit's power in individual life. In its examination of these historical precedents, the book argues that the persistent tendency toward individualism in American religious life has often been affirmed and promoted as an effective source of benevolence, social responsibility, and reform.Less
Religious life in the U.S. underwent a profound change in the late twentieth century as divisions between different religious groups softened, exposure to various religions increased, and Americans experienced growing interest in personalized forms of religious experience. The surge of interest in personalized forms of spirituality coincided with the decline in the mainstream Protestant institutions that had once dominated American religion and shaped American culture. It also coincided with the criticism of American arrogance, the debacle in Vietnam, and the defeat of victory culture. Nevertheless, even as patriotic optimism and the authority of Protestant institutions declined, Protestant influence persisted in the celebration of individual religious experience, and in the tendency to place the authority of individual experience above that of established institutions and official hierarchies. Late twentieth‐century American spirituality reflected the Protestant tendency to individualism underlying American religious life, even as it also reflected the mainstreaming of Catholicism in American culture, and an unprecedented interest in, and freedom for, other religions. The book traces some of the antecedents of this recent awakening to the spirituality of American Transcendentalism in the nineteenth century and, before that, to New England Puritanism and its investment in the Holy Spirit's power in individual life. In its examination of these historical precedents, the book argues that the persistent tendency toward individualism in American religious life has often been affirmed and promoted as an effective source of benevolence, social responsibility, and reform.
Louise A. Breen
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195138009
- eISBN:
- 9780199834006
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195138007.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This book examines the divisions in Massachusetts over the colony's social and religious boundaries and its relationship to the transatlantic world in the period 1638–92. Central actors are leading ...
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This book examines the divisions in Massachusetts over the colony's social and religious boundaries and its relationship to the transatlantic world in the period 1638–92. Central actors are leading men who congregated in the Artillery Company of Massachusetts, an organization that attracted a heterogeneous yet prominent membership – a membership whose diversity and cosmopolitanism contrasted with the social and religious ideals of the cultural majority. Focusing on elite men – not marginalized outsiders – who endeavored to stretch the intellectual and social bounds of orthodoxy, the book demonstrates that the dangers posed by the outside world and various sorts of “others” were perceived in very similar terms over the course of the seventeenth century. The tendency to form opposing factions, insisting both on isolation from that world and involvement in its growing diversity, also remained relatively constant, from the antinomian controversy of the 1630s through the witchcraft epidemic of 1692. The old declension model suggested that Massachusetts fell away from its original purity as alien outside forces impinged ever more heavily on its residents. This study argues rather that dueling versions of the good life, which pitted localism against cosmopolitanism and homogeneity against heterogeneity, competed with one another persistently throughout the century and beyond.Less
This book examines the divisions in Massachusetts over the colony's social and religious boundaries and its relationship to the transatlantic world in the period 1638–92. Central actors are leading men who congregated in the Artillery Company of Massachusetts, an organization that attracted a heterogeneous yet prominent membership – a membership whose diversity and cosmopolitanism contrasted with the social and religious ideals of the cultural majority. Focusing on elite men – not marginalized outsiders – who endeavored to stretch the intellectual and social bounds of orthodoxy, the book demonstrates that the dangers posed by the outside world and various sorts of “others” were perceived in very similar terms over the course of the seventeenth century. The tendency to form opposing factions, insisting both on isolation from that world and involvement in its growing diversity, also remained relatively constant, from the antinomian controversy of the 1630s through the witchcraft epidemic of 1692. The old declension model suggested that Massachusetts fell away from its original purity as alien outside forces impinged ever more heavily on its residents. This study argues rather that dueling versions of the good life, which pitted localism against cosmopolitanism and homogeneity against heterogeneity, competed with one another persistently throughout the century and beyond.
Nader Hashemi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195321241
- eISBN:
- 9780199869831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321241.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter provides a historical context through which to examine the struggle for democracy in Muslim societies. It re‐examines the relationship between religion and political development through ...
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This chapter provides a historical context through which to examine the struggle for democracy in Muslim societies. It re‐examines the relationship between religion and political development through the long view of history. After reviewing the place of religion in liberal‐democratic and modernization theory, an alternative reading of on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is provided. Drawing on key developments in the early modern European history and the scholarship of Fernand Braudel and Michael Walzer, parallels are discovered between the emergence of radical religious protest movements in the 16th/17th century Europe and similar events in the late 20th/early 21st century in the Middle East. The emphasis is on a sociological interpretation of religious fundamentalism. It is argued that historical depth is required to understand the relationship between religion and political development and that some forms of radical religious protest movements have a proto‐modern character to them.Less
This chapter provides a historical context through which to examine the struggle for democracy in Muslim societies. It re‐examines the relationship between religion and political development through the long view of history. After reviewing the place of religion in liberal‐democratic and modernization theory, an alternative reading of on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is provided. Drawing on key developments in the early modern European history and the scholarship of Fernand Braudel and Michael Walzer, parallels are discovered between the emergence of radical religious protest movements in the 16th/17th century Europe and similar events in the late 20th/early 21st century in the Middle East. The emphasis is on a sociological interpretation of religious fundamentalism. It is argued that historical depth is required to understand the relationship between religion and political development and that some forms of radical religious protest movements have a proto‐modern character to them.
Kenyon Gradert
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226694023
- eISBN:
- 9780226694160
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226694160.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The Puritans of popular memory are dour figures, characterized by humorless toil at best and witch trials at worst. Calling someone a Puritan is an insult reserved for prudes, prigs, or oppressors. ...
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The Puritans of popular memory are dour figures, characterized by humorless toil at best and witch trials at worst. Calling someone a Puritan is an insult reserved for prudes, prigs, or oppressors. Our American abolitionist forebears, however, would be shocked to hear this. In the decades before the Civil War, abolitionists fervently embraced the idea that Puritans were in fact pioneers of revolutionary dissent, and invoked their name and ideas as part of their anti-slavery crusade. Puritan Spirits in the Abolitionist Imagination reveals how the leaders of the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement—from landmark figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson to scores of lesser-known writers and orators—drew upon the Puritan tradition to shape their politics and personae. In a striking instance of selective memory, reimagined aspects of Puritan history proved to be potent catalysts for abolitionist minds. Black writers lauded slave rebels as new Puritan soldiers, female antislavery militias in Kansas were cast as modern Pilgrims, and a direct lineage of radical democracy was traced from these early New Englanders through the American and French revolutions to the abolitionist movement, deemed a “Second Reformation” by some. Kenyon Gradert recovers a striking influence on abolitionism and recasts our understanding of puritanism, often seen as a strictly conservative ideology, averse to the worldly rebellion championed by abolitionists.Less
The Puritans of popular memory are dour figures, characterized by humorless toil at best and witch trials at worst. Calling someone a Puritan is an insult reserved for prudes, prigs, or oppressors. Our American abolitionist forebears, however, would be shocked to hear this. In the decades before the Civil War, abolitionists fervently embraced the idea that Puritans were in fact pioneers of revolutionary dissent, and invoked their name and ideas as part of their anti-slavery crusade. Puritan Spirits in the Abolitionist Imagination reveals how the leaders of the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement—from landmark figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson to scores of lesser-known writers and orators—drew upon the Puritan tradition to shape their politics and personae. In a striking instance of selective memory, reimagined aspects of Puritan history proved to be potent catalysts for abolitionist minds. Black writers lauded slave rebels as new Puritan soldiers, female antislavery militias in Kansas were cast as modern Pilgrims, and a direct lineage of radical democracy was traced from these early New Englanders through the American and French revolutions to the abolitionist movement, deemed a “Second Reformation” by some. Kenyon Gradert recovers a striking influence on abolitionism and recasts our understanding of puritanism, often seen as a strictly conservative ideology, averse to the worldly rebellion championed by abolitionists.
Nicholas Mcdowell
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199278008
- eISBN:
- 9780191707810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278008.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature, Poetry
This chapter sets Marvell's two of published occasional poems of 1648–9 in the context of the literary community around Stanley in London. The first section examines John Hall's career as a ...
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This chapter sets Marvell's two of published occasional poems of 1648–9 in the context of the literary community around Stanley in London. The first section examines John Hall's career as a Parliamentarian propagandist and shows how he followed Milton in seeking to convince his literary friends to support a royalist–Independent alliance against the Presbyterians. The second section reads Marvell's An Elegy Upon the Death of My Lord Francis Villiers as concerned with similar themes of Lovelace's post-war verse––the destruction of court culture and the future for poetry and wit in a Puritan society. The third section is the most extensive interpretation to date of Marvell's verse epistle ‘To His Noble Friend Mr Richard Lovelace’, a poem which brings together central themes of the previous chapters and reveals Marvell's allegiance to the cause of wit above the defeated cause of the king.Less
This chapter sets Marvell's two of published occasional poems of 1648–9 in the context of the literary community around Stanley in London. The first section examines John Hall's career as a Parliamentarian propagandist and shows how he followed Milton in seeking to convince his literary friends to support a royalist–Independent alliance against the Presbyterians. The second section reads Marvell's An Elegy Upon the Death of My Lord Francis Villiers as concerned with similar themes of Lovelace's post-war verse––the destruction of court culture and the future for poetry and wit in a Puritan society. The third section is the most extensive interpretation to date of Marvell's verse epistle ‘To His Noble Friend Mr Richard Lovelace’, a poem which brings together central themes of the previous chapters and reveals Marvell's allegiance to the cause of wit above the defeated cause of the king.
