5 - Slavery and The Protestant Ethic

Abstract

There are five religious forces that are important in the qualitative formation of anti-slavery: (1) arminianism, (2) redemption, (3) sanctification, (4) post-millenialism, and (5) denominationalism. The rise of Arminianism and of a modified Calvinism had other implications, notably an insistence on the role of good in the working out of salvation. As Beriah Green put it, “Professed piety towards God is base and spurious if not united with benevolence for men.” In England, almost half a century earlier, Thomas Scott in his influential Commentary on the Holy Bible had stressed, specifically in relation to slavery, the importance of the law of love. Charles Grandison Finney made a larger claim, saying of true Christians that “to the universal reformation of the world they stand committed.” If Finney's own record in reform was ambivalent, it is hard not to relate the reformist activity of men like Theodore Dwight Weld, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and James Gillespie Birney to one of the imperatives of 19th century evangelical religion.