The Perfect Rule of the Christian Religion

249 pages

English

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The Perfect Rule of the Christian Religion , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - John Howard Smith

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249 pages

English

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Some thought them dangerous, others credited them with recovering original Christianity. The Sandemanians, a sect with roots in the turmoil of eighteenth-century Scottish Presbyterianism, espoused a radical theology that influenced the development of American Christianity. Founder John Glas blended elements of fundamentalist New Testament Christianity with Enlightenment philosophy to create what he believed to be "the perfect rule of the Christian religion." The history and legacy of the Sandemanians are given full attention in these pages, which reveal the origins of the sect in Scotland and follow its greatest proselyte, Robert Sandeman, across the Atlantic to New England. Author John Howard Smith shows how such a minor sectarian movement could create so much controversy at the time of the First Great Awakening and the American Revolution. The churches Sandeman established were eventually crushed by the Revolution, their adherents scattered, never to grow into a denomination. The Sandemanians are little known today, yet elements of their theology played a key role in the future of American Christianity.
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. "I Thought Myself a Sound Presbyterian"

2. "The Perfect Rule of the Christian Religion"

3. "He Becomes Possessed of a Truth"

4. "May God Preserve Our [Churches] Amidst All Attacks"

5. "Spirited Conduct"

6. "Mine Eyes Must Flow with a River of Tears"

Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

Religion

Christianisme

USA

United States of America

History of the Americas

History of religions

Christianity

États-Unis

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	01 décembre 2008
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438425191
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1648€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE PERFECTRULE OF THE CHRISTIANRELIGION ì

A History of Sandemanianism in the Eighteenth Century

John Howard Smith

Portrait of John Glas. By James McArdell, after William Millar. Mezzotint, mid18th century 14in. x9 7/8in. (355mm x251mm) paper size NPG D2440 Given by the daughter of compiler William Fleming, MD, Mary Elizabeth Stopford, 1931–06–25

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu

Production by Ryan Morris Marketing by Anne M. Valentine Book design and typesetting: Jack Donner, BookType Library of Congress of CataloginginPublication Data

Smith, John Howard,1968– The perfect rule of the Christian religion : a history of Sandemanianism in the eighteenth century / John Howard Smith. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN9781438425078(hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Sandemanianism —History —18th century. 2. United States —Church history —18th century. I. Title. BX9747.S65 2008 289.9— dc22 2008020827

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1.“I Thought Myself a Sound Presbyterian”

2.“The Perfect Rule of the Christian Religion”

3.“He Becomes Possessed of a Truth”

Contents

4.“May God Preserve Our [Churches] Amidst All Attacks”

5.“Spirited Conduct”

6.“Mine Eyes Must Flow with a River of Tears”

Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

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153

177 183 211 231

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Acknowledgments

I am an Alan Alda fan, and when I bought a ticket to seeSweet Liberty in the late spring of1986, I thought I was going to spend a couple of hours enjoying what I expected would be a good comedy. Little did I know that it would change my life. In the ﬁlm, Alda plays an early Amer-icanist professor of history, and when I saw the scenes of him teaching a course on the American Revolution, suddenly a casual interest in eigh-teenth-century America, which began with an oral presentation on Thomas Jefferson in1976for a Cub Scout merit badge, forced its way to the surface. As I gazed upon the screen, I knew I wanted the kind of life that Alda’s character had, and, though I took many exciting detours along the way, I inevitably found myself becoming an early Americanist. I owe Mr. Alda a heartfelt note of thanks for making a good movie, and for showing me the way ahead. This book began, as all such things must, with a question. I was a doctoral student at the University at Albany, State University of New York, taking Sung Bok Kim’s seminar in early America, and I was writing an historiographical essay on Benedict Arnold biographies. James Kirby Martin’sBenedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered(1997) mentioned an incident when Arnold, leading a group of Danbury, Connecticut, Sons of Liberty, was “’mobbing the Sandemanians,’ ” quoting Samuel Peters’s late eighteenth-centuryGeneral History of Connecticut. A parenthetical note only identiﬁed the Sande-manians as “a small Scottish religious sect in New Haven,” which did not satisfy my curiosity. If they were suspected Tories, why note their religion as though that had some bearing on their political orientation? And anyway, what is a Sandemanian? I took my second question to a selec-

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THEPERFECTRULE OF THECHRISTIANRELIGION

tion of eminent scholars and specialists in New England history in a series of emails, and the only response came from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who directed me to the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Sandeman-Barrell Papers. I then discovered Williston Walker’s short article in the American Historical Association’s Annual Report for1901, and a1987article by Jean F. Hankins in theNew England Quarterly, none of which explained fully what the Sandemanians believed or where they came from except that an immigrant Scot, Robert Sandeman, founded a few primitive Christian churches in New England in the 1760s. I went on to write a seminar paper on the Sandemanians during the years leading up to and through the War for Independence, which was published in theHistorical Journal of Massachusetts, and that in turn grew circuitously into a doctoral dissertation, and ﬁnally evolved into the present book. When I began my doctoral studies, I intended to concentrate on the social and political dimensions of loyalism, but gradually found myself gravitating toward the history and culture of early American Chris-tianity. I was—and continue to be—interested in those Loyalists who were so out of religious convictions, and the first incarnation of my dissertation was a study of religious loyalism throughout revolutionary America. The Sandemanians, however, repeatedly demanded my atten-tion, and Professor Kim suggested that I narrow my focus to that group, applying substantive ﬂesh to what seemed to be mainly bone and sinew. That the Sandemanians have for the most part been ignored in the major scholarly literature is a mystery, and I hope that in years to come others will give them the pride of place they deserve in the history of Chris-tianity in Britain and North America. I have incurred a great many debts as I have made my way through various projects that culminate in this book, and to name them all would take up too much precious space, but several must be acknowledged. First, I want to extend my gratitude to Professor Ulrich, who inadver-tently kicked off my career with her kind response to a novice historian’s out-of-the-blue question. I owe a debt to the many archivists and librar-ians I have had the pleasure to work with as I conducted my research, especially the staffs at the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Yale University Library, the Boston Public Library, the Danbury Historical Society, and the David Library of the American Revolution. A number of people have encouraged my academic ambitions over the years since I set out to become a historian, and without whom I would never have achieved the realization of my dream. Thanks to Julia K. Woodcock, Milton Ready, Kathleen Nilan, the late Jeanne Marty, Teddy J. Uldricks, Robert F. Yeager, Nadieszda Kizenko, John Monfasani, Candis Murray,

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