Religion In New England Research Articles

Moravians Encounter New England's Radical Evangelicals, 1745 and 1759

ABSTRACT The Moravian travel reports reproduced here contain accounts and observations of radical evangelical religion in New England during the 1740s and 1750s, especially in and around New London, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. These accounts supplement existing knowledge about radical New Lights and separatists at the height of the Great Awakening. Itinerants James Burnside, Owen Rice, and Richard Utley encounter associates of James Davenport, members of the separatist seminary known as the Shepherds Tent, sectarian Rogerenes, and the exuberant Indian congregation of Narragansett preacher Sam Niles. Beyond providing heretofore-unpublished accounts of these radical evangelicals, these sources also illustrate the uneasy place Moravians occupied during the Great Awakening. The three Moravian travelers seemed to feel affinity for some of the radicals they encountered, but were critical of others and admonished them to steer clear of extremes. Given the fact that these are just two of many Moravian sources related to radical religion during the time period, this is also meant to highlight an avenue ripe for ongoing study.

Jonathan Edwards, Affective Conversion, and the Problem of Masochism

This essay uses the work of Jonathan Edwards to trace intellectual, historical, and theoretical connections between eighteenth-century religious conversion in England and New England and later accounts of masochism's Enlightenment philosophical basis. Expanding feminist readings of revival abjection to include racial abjection, I focus on Edwards's account of religious sentiment in a “Personal Narrative” (ca. 1739), A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Works of God (1736–37), and Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1742). Situating these texts in their philosophical and political contexts, I then use A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746) to show how Edwards's evolving response to revivalist disruptions of hierarchy led him to describe a sentimental structure of desire similar to masochism as a defense against a modern subjectivity that would allow for masochism.

Native American Popular Religion in New England’s Old Colony, 1670–1770

AbstractIn recent years, historians have turned their attention to the continued presence of Native Americans living “behind the frontier” in eighteenth-century New England. Where a previous generation of scholars once wrangled over the benignity of seventeenth-century Puritan “praying towns” and equated conversion with cultural suicide, current studies of Native religion in the decades preceding the American Revolution suggest that Indians preserved traditional culture by grafting Christianity onto a preexisting grid of beliefs and practices. A case study based on the writings of a lay missionary and civil magistrate named Josiah Cotton, this essay contributes to revisionist scholarship by examining Native American spirituality under the broader and more inclusive category of popular religion. Most Wampanoag families in New England's “Old Colony” lived between cultures—neither fully integrated into English society nor fully traditional in their identities or worldview. The ambiguities of their colonial situation, in turn, facilitated the emergence of a diverse spectrum of religious beliefs and practices that, at times, transcended racial categories. English settlers consulted Native American shamans and cunning folk; rumors of witchcraft, ghosts, and spirits permeated all ranks of society; and Indians and their white neighbors shared a preoccupation with spiritual healing. A few core families aspired to all the trappings of English life; they internalized Puritan doctrine, engaged in sophisticated devotional routines, and joined local Indian churches. Others continued to live in traditional ways and simply ignored the pastoral labors of regional missionaries. But for the majority of Native Christians who lived and worked side-by-side with their English neighbors, religion remained an eclectic affair as they deployed a variety of spiritual resources to combat the vicissitudes and uncertainties of everyday life.

Things of the Spirit: Documenting Religion in New England

Before archivists can document a large and complex phenomenon such as religion in New England, they must understand the outlines of its history, particularly in the more recent period. This article reviews the long story of religion in the region and focuses in particular on developments since the Second World War. The more important influences in this time include changes in economic and social life, suburbanization, changing traditions within particular denominations, growing ecumenical activity, and the use of mass media by religious professionals. The article concludes with a series of suggestions for how archivists, both individually and collectively, can identify and preserve documentation for these subjects.

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The years following the Great Awakening in New England saw a great theological struggle between proponents of Calvinism and the champions of Christian liberty, setting the stage for American Unitarianism. The adherents of Christian liberty, who were branded Arminians by their opponents, were contending for the liberty of the mind and the soul to pursue truth and salvation free from prior restraint. The Arminian movement took shape as a major, quasi-denominational force in New England under the guidance of particular clergymen, most notably Ebenezer Gay, minister of the First Parish in Hingham, Massachusetts, from 1718 to 1787. Despite his ubiquitous presence in the history of Arminianism, however, Gay has been a historical enigma. Robert J. Wilson's purpose in this biography is to trace Gay's long and fascinating intellectual odyssey against the evolving social, political, and economic life of eighteenth-century Hingham as well as the religious history of the coastal region between Boston and Plymouth.

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-7787. By Robert J. WilsonIII. Sources Chrétiennes 302. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. xv + 311 pp.

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-7787. By Robert J. WilsonIII. Sources Chrétiennes 302. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. xv + 311 pp.

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and The Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787.

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and The Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787.

<sc>robert j. wilson iii</sc>. <italic>The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696–1787</italic>. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1984. Pp. xv, 311. $25.00

Journal Article robert j. wilson iii. The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696–1787. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1984. Pp. xv, 311. $25.00 Get access Wilson Robert J.III. The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696–1787. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1984. Pp. xv, 311. $25.00. T. Dwight Bozeman T. Dwight Bozeman University of Iowa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 89, Issue 5, December 1984, Pages 1385–1386, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/89.5.1385 Published: 01 December 1984

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The Structure of Praise, a Design Study/ Architecture for Religion in New England from the 17th Century to the Present, by Arthur B. Mazmanian. 151 pp. Boston, Beacon Press, 1970. $19.95

The Structure of Praise, a Design Study/ Architecture for Religion in New England from the 17th Century to the Present, by Arthur B. Mazmanian. 151 pp. Boston, Beacon Press, 1970. $19.95

The Structure of Praise: A Design Study—Architecture for Religion in New England From the 17th Century to the Present. By Arthur B. Mazmanian. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970. v + 170 pp. $19.95.

The Structure of Praise: A Design Study—Architecture for Religion in New England From the 17th Century to the Present. By Arthur B. Mazmanian. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970. v + 170 pp. $19.95. - Volume 40 Issue 3

Review: The Structure of Praise, A Design Study, Architecture for Religion in New England from the 17th Century to the Present by Arthur B. Mazmanian

Review: The Structure of Praise, A Design Study, Architecture for Religion in New England from the 17th Century to the Present by Arthur B. Mazmanian

The Structure of Praise: A Design Study--Architecture for Religion in New England from the 17th Century to the Present

The Structure of Praise: A Design Study--Architecture for Religion in New England from the 17th Century to the Present

Book Review: Early and Medieval Christianity. By Roland H. Bainton. Hodder and Stoughton, 1965. ix+261 pp. 25s.; Christian Unity and Religion in New England. By Roland H. Bainton. Hodder and Stoughton, 1965. 294 pp. 25s

Book Review: <scp>Early and Medieval Christianity</scp>. By Roland H. Bainton. Hodder and Stoughton, 1965. ix+261 pp. 25s.; <scp>Christian Unity and Religion in New England</scp>. By Roland H. Bainton. Hodder and Stoughton, 1965. 294 pp. 25s

Christian Unity and Religion in New England

Christian Unity and Religion in New England