The Wonder of Rational Christianity

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines Sally Sayward Wood’s 1800 novel Julia and the Illuminated Baron in the context of the Bavarian Illuminati crisis, arguing that Wood engaged this conflict in order to address concerns about secularity in the early republic. These concerns stemmed from several developments: the rising liberal conception of rational Christianity, the New England Federalist conception of established religion as an efficient means of promoting morality in a republic, and the fragilization of faith that Charles Taylor has associated with religious pluralism. The chapter argues that Wood’s use of gothic form sought to stave off feared secularization by combining an aesthetic sense of religious wonder with Enlightened rationalism. The chapter interprets this blend as a postsecular expression of intertwined modernity and Protestantism that was essential to Wood’s Federalist conception of religion in a republic. The chapter also considers the theological and political influence of Wood’s father Nathanial Barrell’s Sandemanisnism on Wood’s conception of rational Christianity.