Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World – serie

Bankhurst examines how news regarding the violent struggle to control the borderlands of British North America between 1740 and 1760 resonated among communities in Ireland with familial links to the colonies. This work considers how intense Irish press coverage and American fundraising drives in Ireland produced empathy among Ulster Presbyterians.

This book explores the Society of Friend's Atlantic presence through its creation and use of networks, including intellectual and theological exchange, and through the movement of people. It focuses on the establishment of trans-Atlantic Quaker networks and the crucial role London played in the creation of a Quaker community in the North Atlantic.

Puritanism has a reputation for being emotionally dry, but seventeenth-century Puritans did not only have rich and complex emotional lives, they also found meaning in and drew spiritual strength from emotion. From theology to lived experience and from joy to affliction, this volume surveys the wealth and depth of the Puritans' passions.

This book explores the religious concerns of Enlightenment thinkers from Thomas Hobbes to Thomas Jefferson. Using an innovative method, the study illuminates the intellectual history of the age through interpretations of Jesus between c.1650 and c.1826. The book demonstrates the persistence of theology in modern philosophy and the projects of social reform and amelioration associated with the Enlightenment. At the core of many of these projects was a robust moral-theological realism, sometimes manifest in a natural law ethic, but always associated with Jesus and a commitment to the sovereign goodness of God. This ethical orientation in Enlightenment discourse is found in a range of different metaphysical and political identities (dualist and monist; progressive and radical) which intersect with earlier ‘heretical’ tendencies in Christian thought (Arianism, Pelagianism, and Marcionism). This intellectual matrix helped to produce the discourses of irenic toleration which are a legacyof the Enlightenment at its best.

Bankhurst examines how news regarding the violent struggle to control the borderlands of British North America between 1740 and 1760 resonated among communities in Ireland with familial links to the colonies. This work considers how intense Irish press coverage and American fundraising drives in Ireland produced empathy among Ulster Presbyterians.

This book explores the Society of Friend's Atlantic presence through its creation and use of networks, including intellectual and theological exchange, and through the movement of people. It focuses on the establishment of trans-Atlantic Quaker networks and the crucial role London played in the creation of a Quaker community in the North Atlantic.

For many English puritans, the new world represented new opportunities for the reification of reformation, if not a site within which they might begin to experience the conditions of the millennium itself. For many Irish Catholics, by contrast, the new world became associated with the experience of defeat, forced transportation, indentured service, cultural and religious loss. And yet, as the chapters in this volume demonstrate, the Atlantic experience of puritans and Catholics could be much less bifurcated than some of the established scholarly narratives have suggested: puritans and Catholics could co-exist within the same trans-Atlantic families; Catholics could prosper, just as puritans could experience financial decline; and Catholics and puritans could adopt, and exchange, similar kinds of belief structures and practical arrangements, even to the extent of being mistaken for each other. This volume investigates the history of Puritans and Catholics in the Atlantic world, 1600-1800.

A study of the rise and decline of puritanism in England and New England that focuses on the role of godly men and women. It explores the role of family devotions, lay conferences, prophesying and other means by which the laity influenced puritan belief and practice, and the efforts of the clergy to reduce lay power in the seventeenth century.

This book concerns one of early modern England’s most prolific female authors, Jane Lead (1624–1704).  Well-researched and clearly written, these essays focus on aspects of Lead’s thought including her attitudes towards Calvinism, mysticism, androgyny and the apocalypse, her role within the Philadelphian Society, and her transnational legacy - particularly in the German-speaking world and North America.This book suggests that Lead was far more radical than has been supposed. It argues that her religious journey had staging posts, namely an initial Calvinist obsession with sin and predestination wedded to a conventional Protestant understanding of the coming apocalypse, then the introduction of Jacob Boehme’s teachings and accompanying visions of a female personification of divine wisdom and finally, the adoption of the doctrine of the universal restoration of all humanity.  It locates Lead within a continuing tradition of puritan pastoral thought, showing how herpersonalised view of the millennium differed from most of her contemporaries and discussing her influence on Pietists and their conceptions of bodily transmutation. It also discusses strategies available to female authors and manuscript circulation as an alternative to print and examines her initial continental reception, particularly within Pietist and Spiritualist circles.  Lastly, it traces her afterlife through the relationship between the Philadelphians and the French Prophets, the interest in Lead among the followers of Joanna Southcott and her successors, and the appropriation of Lead’s prophecies by two twentieth century movements: Mary’s City of David and the Latter Rain movement.

This book explores the trans-Atlantic history of Protestant traditions of communalism – communities of shared property.The sixteenth-century Reformation may have destroyed monasticism in northern Europe, but Protestant Christianity has not always denied common property. Between 1650 and 1850, a range of Protestant groups adopted communal goods, frequently after crossing the Atlantic to North America: the Ephrata community, the Shakers, the Harmony Society, the Community of True Inspiration, and others. Early Mormonism also developed with a communal dimension, challenging its surrounding Protestant culture of individualism and the free market. In a series of focussed and survey studies, this book recovers the trans-Atlantic networks and narratives, ideas and influences, which shaped Protestant communalism across two centuries of early modernity.

Puritanism has a reputation for being emotionally dry, but seventeenth-century Puritans did not only have rich and complex emotional lives, they also found meaning in and drew spiritual strength from emotion. From theology to lived experience and from joy to affliction, this volume surveys the wealth and depth of the Puritans' passions.

Prophecy and millennial speculation are often seen as having played a key role in early European engagements with the new world, from Columbus’s use of the predictions of Joachim of Fiore, to the puritan ‘Errand into the Wilderness’. Yet examinations of such ideas have sometimes presumed an overly simplistic application of these beliefs in the lives of those who held to them. This book explores the way in which prophecy and eschatological ideas influenced poets, politicians, theologians, and ordinary people in the Atlantic world from the sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. Chapters cover topics ranging from messianic claimants to the Portuguese crown to popular prophetic almanacs in eighteenth-century New England; from eschatological ideas in the poetry of George Herbert and Anne Bradstreet, to the prophetic speculation surrounding the Evangelical revivals. It highlights the ways in which prophecy and eschatology played a key role in the early modern Atlantic world.

This book builds upon research on the role of Catholicism in creating and strengthening a global Irish identity, complementing existing scholarship by adding a ‘Roman perspective’. It assesses the direct agency of the Holy See, its role in the Irish collective imagination, and the extent and limitations of Irish influence over the Holy See’s policies and decisions. Revealing the centrality of the Holy See in the development of a series of missionary connections across the Atlantic world and Rome, the chapters in this collection consider the formation, causes and consequences of these networks both in Ireland and abroad. The book offers a long durée perspective, covering both the early modern and modern periods, to show how Irish Catholicism expanded across continental Europe and over the Atlantic across three centuries. It also offers new insights into the history of Irish migration, exploring the position of the Irish Catholic clergy in Atlantic communities of Irish migrants.

This book explores why English Christians, from the early modern period onwards, believed that their nation had a special mission to restore the Jews to Palestine. It examines English support for Jewish restoration from the Whitehall Conference in 1655 through to public debates on the Jerusalem Bishopric in 1841. Rather than claiming to replace Israel as God’s “elect nation”, England was “chosen” to have a special, but inferior, relationship with the Jews. Believing that God “blessed those who bless” the Jewish people, this national role allowed England to atone for ill-treatment of Jews, read the confusing pathways of providence, and guarantee the nation’s survival until Christ’s return. This book analyses this mode of national identity construction and its implications for understanding Christian views of Jews, the self, and “the other”. It offers a new understanding of national election, and of the relationship between apocalyptic prophecy and political action.

This book considers the doctrinal and ecclesiological trends that were present during the construction of the revised Book of Common Prayer of 1927. Through the use of the records of both Convocations and of the National/Church Assembly, it examines the debates that led to the revised Book and the doctrinal shifts that were present in these debates. It challenges the idea that the revision process stalled in the First World War by showing how the birth of the National Assembly that took place during the war was born out of the revision process. Through the Assembly records it shows the integral role the laity played in the revision process. It examines the attempts to get the revised Books through Parliament, the difference between pro and anti-revision speakers, and the radical ecclesiological thinking that followed the rejections.

This book sheds light on the career of Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and in doing so touches on numerous aspects of nineteenth-century British and European religious history.  Several recent scholars have celebrated the 200th anniversary of the German textual critic Tischendorf but Tregelles, his contemporary English rival, has been neglected, despite his achievements being comparable. In addition to his decisive contribution to Biblical textual scholarship, this study of Tregelles’ career sheds light on developments among Quakers in the period, and Tregelles’s enthusiastic involvement with the early nineteenth-century Welsh literary renaissance usefully supplements recent studies on Iolo Morganwg. The early career of Tregelles also gives valuable fresh detail to the origins of the Plymouth Brethren, (in both England and Italy) the study of whose early history has become more extensive over the last twenty years. The whole of Tregelles’s career therefore illuminates neglected aspectsof Victorian religious life.

This book sheds light on the career of Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, and in doing so touches on numerous aspects of nineteenth-century British and European religious history.  Several recent scholars have celebrated the 200th anniversary of the German textual critic Tischendorf but Tregelles, his contemporary English rival, has been neglected, despite his achievements being comparable. In addition to his decisive contribution to Biblical textual scholarship, this study of Tregelles’ career sheds light on developments among Quakers in the period, and Tregelles’s enthusiastic involvement with the early nineteenth-century Welsh literary renaissance usefully supplements recent studies on Iolo Morganwg. The early career of Tregelles also gives valuable fresh detail to the origins of the Plymouth Brethren, (in both England and Italy) the study of whose early history has become more extensive over the last twenty years. The whole of Tregelles’s career therefore illuminates neglected aspectsof Victorian religious life.

‘In this compelling and thoroughly researched book, Benjamin Huskinson demonstrates that just as there is broad diversity within evangelicalism, so too there is broad diversity among “creationists.” His work on the Intelligent Design movement is superb, and he prompts me to rethink my long held conviction that Intelligent Design is merely the most recent evolutionary form of creationism. This is a very fine book.’—Randall Balmer, Author of Evangelicalism in America and writer-host of “In the Beginning”: The Creationist Controversy   ‘Benjamin Huskinson's study of American creationism will be an eye-opener for those who sit on the opposite side of the evolution debate. He shows that far from being a unified assault on Darwinism, the campaign was actually a sequence of separate movements launched by rival evangelical groups competing for influence within their own community.’—Peter Bowler, Author of Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons: Evolution and Christianity from Darwin to Intelligent Design ‘A thoughtful and careful analysis that throws as much light on the diversity of American evangelicalism as it does on Christian attitudes to evolutionary theory. Huskinson offers a smart analysis of religious anti-evolution movements which neither demonises nor ridicules but seeks to understand the tenets and beliefs of a movement far more complex and multivalent than most of us appreciate. A must-read for science communicators.’—Philippa Levine, Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas, University of Texas at Austin, USAThis book explores the cultural history of anti-evolution efforts in the United States from 1960 to the present, refuting several popular narratives about creation science in evangelical America. Separating theological terms like “creationism” from cultural movements such as “creation science” and “intelligent design” in an evangelical marketplace of ideas, it contests assumptions that evangelical movements against evolution are homogeneous, and it argues that intelligent design is not an off-shoot of the creation-science movement. It demonstrates that the rationale of creationist groups is relational as well as ideological, showing that the social function of American creationism, which is to establish the boundaries of 'orthodox' religion, is key to understanding the competing strategies of creation-science organisations.

‘In this compelling and thoroughly researched book, Benjamin Huskinson demonstrates that just as there is broad diversity within evangelicalism, so too there is broad diversity among “creationists.” His work on the Intelligent Design movement is superb, and he prompts me to rethink my long held conviction that Intelligent Design is merely the most recent evolutionary form of creationism. This is a very fine book.’—Randall Balmer, Author of Evangelicalism in America and writer-host of “In the Beginning”: The Creationist Controversy   ‘Benjamin Huskinson's study of American creationism will be an eye-opener for those who sit on the opposite side of the evolution debate. He shows that far from being a unified assault on Darwinism, the campaign was actually a sequence of separate movements launched by rival evangelical groups competing for influence within their own community.’—Peter Bowler, Author of Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons: Evolution and Christianity from Darwin to Intelligent Design ‘A thoughtful and careful analysis that throws as much light on the diversity of American evangelicalism as it does on Christian attitudes to evolutionary theory. Huskinson offers a smart analysis of religious anti-evolution movements which neither demonises nor ridicules but seeks to understand the tenets and beliefs of a movement far more complex and multivalent than most of us appreciate. A must-read for science communicators.’—Philippa Levine, Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas, University of Texas at Austin, USAThis book explores the cultural history of anti-evolution efforts in the United States from 1960 to the present, refuting several popular narratives about creation science in evangelical America. Separating theological terms like “creationism” from cultural movements such as “creation science” and “intelligent design” in an evangelical marketplace of ideas, it contests assumptions that evangelical movements against evolution are homogeneous, and it argues that intelligent design is not an off-shoot of the creation-science movement. It demonstrates that the rationale of creationist groups is relational as well as ideological, showing that the social function of American creationism, which is to establish the boundaries of 'orthodox' religion, is key to understanding the competing strategies of creation-science organisations.

This book presents a revolutionary new reading of manuscript records left by puritan minister Thomas Shepard in Cambridge, Massachusetts that have been studied for decades as his on-the-spot recording of oral relations of faith delivered by candidates for church membership. This book proves that these records are not relations, but Shepard’s personal record of sessions of trial—meetings with candidates still working out their spiritual seeking. New transcriptions of the original manuscript records, and corresponding never-before-published writing by Shepard, dispel much of the confusion produced by the published transcriptions. Close-readings of the manuscripts, contrasted with the published transcriptions, set the stage for a new understanding of puritan spiritual preparation in Shepard’s Cambridge church. The book concludes with a challenge to the negative reading of the women’s records that is central to established scholarship, revealing their powerful, confident spiritual identities and voices.

This book presents a revolutionary new reading of manuscript records left by puritan minister Thomas Shepard in Cambridge, Massachusetts that have been studied for decades as his on-the-spot recording of oral relations of faith delivered by candidates for church membership.

This book brings together interdisciplinary scholars from history, theology, folklore, ethnology and meteorology to examine how David Cranz’s Historie von Grönland (1765) resonated in various disciplines, periods and countries. Collectively the contributors demonstrate the reach of the book beyond its initial purpose as a record of missionary work, and into secular and political fields beyond Greenland and Germany. The chapters also reveal how the book contributed to broader discussions and conceptualizations of Greenland as part of the Atlantic world. The interdisciplinary scope of the volume allows for a layered reading of Cranz’s book that demonstrates how different meanings could be drawn from the book in different contexts and how the book resonated throughout time and space. It also makes the broader argument that the construction of the Artic in the eighteenth century broadened our understanding of the Atlantic.

This book brings together interdisciplinary scholars from history, theology, folklore, ethnology and meteorology to examine how David Cranz’s Historie von Grönland (1765) resonated in various disciplines, periods and countries. Collectively the contributors demonstrate the reach of the book beyond its initial purpose as a record of missionary work, and into secular and political fields beyond Greenland and Germany. The chapters also reveal how the book contributed to broader discussions and conceptualizations of Greenland as part of the Atlantic world. The interdisciplinary scope of the volume allows for a layered reading of Cranz’s book that demonstrates how different meanings could be drawn from the book in different contexts and how the book resonated throughout time and space. It also makes the broader argument that the construction of the Artic in the eighteenth century broadened our understanding of the Atlantic.

This book tells the story of the Rev. Benjamin Colman (1673-1747), one of eighteenth-century America’s most influential ministers, and his transatlantic social world of letters. Exploring his epistolary network reveals how imperial culture diffused through the British Atlantic and formed the Dissenting Interest in America, England, and Scotland. Traveling to and living in England between 1695-1699, Colman forged enduring connections with English Dissenters that would animate and define his ministry for nearly a half century. The chapters reassemble Colman’s epistolary web to illuminate the Dissenting Interest’s broad range of activities through the circulation of Dissenting histories, libraries, missionaries, revival news, and provincial defenses of religious liberty. This book argues that over the course of Colman’s life the Dissenting Interest integrated, extended, and ultimately detached, presenting the history of Protestant Dissent as fundamentally a transatlantic story shaped by the provincial edges of the British Empire.

This book tells the story of the Rev. Benjamin Colman (1673-1747), one of eighteenth-century America’s most influential ministers, and his transatlantic social world of letters. Exploring his epistolary network reveals how imperial culture diffused through the British Atlantic and formed the Dissenting Interest in America, England, and Scotland. Traveling to and living in England between 1695-1699, Colman forged enduring connections with English Dissenters that would animate and define his ministry for nearly a half century. The chapters reassemble Colman’s epistolary web to illuminate the Dissenting Interest’s broad range of activities through the circulation of Dissenting histories, libraries, missionaries, revival news, and provincial defenses of religious liberty. This book argues that over the course of Colman’s life the Dissenting Interest integrated, extended, and ultimately detached, presenting the history of Protestant Dissent as fundamentally a transatlantic story shaped by the provincial edges of the British Empire.

This book investigates and assesses how and to what extent the French Catholic missionaries carried out their evangelical activity amid the natives of Acadia/Nova Scotia from the mid-seventeenth century until 1755, the year of the Great Deportation of the Acadians. It provides a new understanding of the role played by the French missionaries in the most peripheral and less populated area of Canada during the colonial period. The decision to focus on this period is dictated by the need to investigate how and to which extent the French missionaries sought to carry out their activity within a contested territory which was exposed to the pressures coming out of both French and British imperial interests.

This book investigates and assesses how and to what extent the French Catholic missionaries carried out their evangelical activity amid the natives of Acadia/Nova Scotia from the mid-seventeenth century until 1755, the year of the Great Deportation of the Acadians. It provides a new understanding of the role played by the French missionaries in the most peripheral and less populated area of Canada during the colonial period. The decision to focus on this period is dictated by the need to investigate how and to which extent the French missionaries sought to carry out their activity within a contested territory which was exposed to the pressures coming out of both French and British imperial interests.

This book explores the early evangelical quest for enlightenment by the Spirit and the Word. While the pursuit originated in the Protestant Reformation, it assumed new forms in the long eighteenth-century context of the early Enlightenment and transatlantic awakened Protestant reform. This work illuminates these transformations by focusing on the dynamic intersection of experimental philosophy and experimental religion in the biblical practices of early America’s most influential Protestant theologians, Cotton Mather (1663-1728) and Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). As the first book-length project to treat Mather and Edwards together, this study makes an important contribution to the extensive scholarship on these figures, opening new perspectives on the continuities and complexities of colonial New England religion. It also provides new insights and interpretive interventions concerning the history of the Bible, early modern intellectual history, and evangelicalism’s complex relationship to the Enlightenment.