Deism and Melancholia

Abstract

By showing that discussions of deism featured prominently in the printed attacks on Wesley and Whitefield, Chapter 5 offers a fundamental reappraisal of the perceived relationship between early evangelicalism and irreligion, while also illuminating the ways in which anti-Methodism was informed by other theological controversies. Crucially, by showing that attacks on evangelicalism often mirrored attacks on irreligion, this chapter argues that categorizations such as ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Counter-Enlightenment’ are unhelpful when describing contemporary perceptions of Methodism and deism. As with deists, Methodists were often viewed by their clerical opponents as melancholic ‘enthusiasts’—the antithesis of ‘true religion’. Conversely, freethinkers sometimes utilized the evangelical movement for their own polemical purposes. By exploring these deistic responses to Methodism, this chapter illuminates the prominence of deception and disguise in eighteenth-century religious polemic. Freethinkers sometimes disguised themselves as religious ‘enthusiasts’ in their polemical attacks on priestly religion. On the other hand, anti-Methodism provided Peter Annet with a Trojan Horse to attack priestly religion.