Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph.  D. Office:  Feinstein CAS 110 Or by Appointment Phone:  (401) 254-3230 e-mail: mswanson@rwu.edu

For Tuesday, February 26           Read in Albanese, Chapter 4, Word from the Beginning:                                American Protestant Origins and the Liberal Tradition, pp. 102 - 131 (to From the Gilded Age)               Read in Allitt          "The Puritans' Errand into the Wilderness" (Perry Miller)  pp. 75 - 83          3.1  John Winthrop Outlines His Plan for a Godly Settlement  pp. 61 -62          3.2  William Bradford Sees God's Mercy and Judgment in                               New England's Changing Fortunes  pp. 62-64          3.3  Why Harvard College Was Founded  pp. 64-65          3.5  Ann Bradstreet Commemorates Two Children's Deaths                                in Poems of 1669  pp. 67-68 Fom the Internet:  Download and read:           The Education of Children by Cotton Mather

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about William Bradford's  poetry is that it exists at all, at least from our perspective.  We've been taught that Puritans had no aesthetic sense:  indeed, that they were opposed to anything which smacked of "art".  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Bradford composed this poetry for his own pleasure.  It points to something of which we should be aware:  the relationship between religious though and poetic expression. Frequently sacred things seem too significant to be clothed in ordinary language, and persons under the influence of religious sentiment and inspiration express their thoughts and emotions in the special language of poetry.  This, of course, doesn't mean that poetry such composed is "good" poetry.  It is probably better not to apply the tools of literary criticism to it in too rigorous a fashion.

The short sermon by John Winthrop is perhaps the most widely anthologized example of Puritan writing.  There is good reason, as it presents Winthrop expounding on the colony's purpose to its first settlers.  Catch some of the flavor of  "we're going to do great things,"  recognizing that the group to whom Winthrop spoke numbered little over 100, and that they were at that time thousands of miles away from their cultural base, their families, and friends.

Puritans are perhaps the most widely recognized American Protestants, and also the most understood.  Nineteenth Century reactions to Puritan thought by literary figures like Nathaniel Hawthorne, together with twentieth century fascination with the aberrant witchcraft episode further colored our understanding of these people.  Perry Miller was the first twentieth century historian to take their ideas seriously, and he explains Covenant Theology in this excerpt.  This is not easy reading... lots of big words, so give yourself some time.  Generally you're going to get the ideas from the context, so I don't think you'll need to pour over your dictionary too much.    Note how the theme of change  runs through Millers essay, and how second generation Puritans saw change as decay.  This should correlate with some of the ideas in Albanese.

We begin to delve deeper into the story of Protestantism in America.  As we have already seen, Protestantism is marked by a very decentralized system of governance.  In some denominations, local congregations are nearly autonomous, and even in those with a stronger sense of central authority the nature of Protestantism encourages rapid (in religious terms) change, fragmentation, and diversity.  One of the tendencies within Protestantism can be called liberalism, and Albanese treats this strain first, tracing the development of Deism and the Unitarian and Transcendental movements under the influence of humanist thought.  Today we'll look at the first half of this discussion (the second will follow on Thursday, perhaps carrying over to next Tuesday).  Albanese returns to discuss traditionalist or conservative strains in  Protestantism in later chapters.

For Tuesday, February 26           Read in Albanese, Chapter 4, Word from the Beginning:                                American Protestant Origins and the Liberal Tradition, pp. 102 - 131 (to From the Gilded Age)               Read in Allitt          "The Puritans' Errand into the Wilderness" (Perry Miller)  pp. 75 - 83          3.1  John Winthrop Outlines His Plan for a Godly Settlement  pp. 61 -62          3.2  William Bradford Sees God's Mercy and Judgment in                               New England's Changing Fortunes  pp. 62-64          3.3  Why Harvard College Was Founded  pp. 64-65          3.5  Ann Bradstreet Commemorates Two Children's Deaths                                in Poems of 1669  pp. 67-68 Fom the Internet:  Download and read:           The Education of Children by Cotton Mather

Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph.  D. Office:  Feinstein CAS 110 Or by Appointment Phone:  (401) 254-3230 e-mail: mswanson@rwu.edu

AMST 310 Varieties of Religious Experience Roger Williams University CAS 122 11:00 - 12:25  T, Th           Spring, 2002

Ann Bradstreet  is a different matter.  She was published in her own lifetime, with the full approbation of the leaders of Massachusetts Bay Colony.  In fact, she was something of the "official" poet for Massachusetts Bay:  her poetry was the first published on the new printing press at Harvard College.  Her "to my Dear and Loving Husband" is probably the most anthologized poem by an American woman poet.  I'm rather happy that Allitt chose to represent her art with two other poems.  More of her poetry is easily found on the internet for those with an interest in her work.  Be aware that some of Corbett's remarks concerning the role of women in consensus Protestant are prefigured here.  American women began to take serious part in religious affairs, debates, and discussions from the very beginning of the American experience.

The founding of Harvard College points to the reliance of Protestantism on literacy and a "learned" clergy.  Consider for a minute the bravado of founding a college based on Cambridge and Oxford (more Cambridge, which was the center of Puritan thought in England--which explains why the name of  Newtown across the Charles River from Boston received the name it did) in a colony only six years old.  The "rules and regulations" may give you some idea of what it was like for students to attend there.

For Thursday, February 28                     The Liberal Tradition in Protestantism since the Civil War Read, in Albanese,     Chapter 4, Word from the Beginning:  American Protestant Origins and the Liberal Tradition, pp. 132 - 147

"Liberal," in the sense that Albanese uses it, refers to theological principles, not economic ones.  We will discover, however, that in the period after the Civil War Liberal thinking  splits on two different cultural fronts.  The first of these is  economic.  You will want to understand what the Gospel of Wealth is, an how it differs from The Social Gospel.  Each of these had its impact on the American Religious Scene, including religious architecture.  As America prospered in the Gilded Age, wealthy congregations vied with each other to see who could produce the most magnificent church.  Churches influenced by the Social Gospel expanded the idea of what a church complex should include, and some of them included gymnasiums and even swimming pools, not to mention classrooms and kitchens.

The other great divide concerned science, chiefly the impact of the new biology of Evolutionism.  Some liberal protestants readily accepted the new science.  Others rejected it.  These divides occurred in all major denominations, leading to a level of diversity which is very complex.  One found all of these combinations without looking very hard:

Theologically Liberal, Socially Liberal, Scientifically Liberal                     Theologically Liberal, Socially Conservative, Scientifically Liberal                     Theologically Liberal, Socially Conservative, Scientifically Conservative                     Theologically Liberal, Socially  Liberal, Scientifically Conservative.

Read in Allitt          9.1  "Charles Hodge denounces Darwin's Theory of                                Evolution as Atheistic"  pp. 259 - 261          9.2   "Lyman Abbott Argues that Christianity and Evolutionary                               Theory are Compatible"  pp.  261 - 263          9.7  "George Herron Depicts Jesus as a                               Revolutionary Socialist"  pp.  272 - 273          9.8  "Russell Conwell Squares Christianity                               with Worldly Success"  pp.  273  - 274

The readings from Allitt can be considered pairs, and they demonstrate the breadth of intellectual and social thought present in consensus Protestantism.  Of these four, Hodge is the most difficult to understand, but you won't find him impossible if you aim for the bigger picture.  What is it about the way Hodge understands Darwin which makes him challenge it?  Note that he is not challenging it because it denies the literal accuracy of the Biblical Creation Stories.  Later Fundamentalists would see Evolution as an attack on the Bible.  Hodge's argument is more sophisticated than that.

Cotton Mather's Address on the Education of Children illustrates the intensity of commitment to literacy which marked American Puritanism and which set the stage of compulsary education in America centuries later.  This will help you understand why Albanese titles her chapter Word from the Beginning

Herron and Conwell raise interesting economic issues.  One can see why forces engaged in economic struggle with each other would want to claim the authority of Consensus Protestantism for their sides.  These essays will help us  understand how they attempted to do this.