John Winthrop (1588-1649) Biography /// Another biography /// The Winthrop Papers. Leader of the 1630 settlement of Boston and First Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony until his death. Writings: "Reasons for Emigrating to New England", A Modell of Christian Charity, "City upon a Hill", "Essay Against the Power of the Church To Sit in Judgement on the Civil Magistracy", "On Liberty", "Arbitrary Government Described".   Commentary: John Winthrop's Shining City

William Bradford (1590-1657) Biography. A leader of the Pilgrims (1620) and Governor of Plymouth Colony (1621-1657). Writings: Of Plymouth Plantation. Commentary: William Bradford, "A Model of Cultural Transvaluation"

Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) Biography. Banished from Boston by John Winthrop and John Cotton for heresy, led followers to Rhode Island and then New York. Writings: Examination of Hutchinson at the Court. Commentary: "Anne Hutchinson and the Economics of Antinomian Selfhood in Colonial New England", "Trouble in New Jerusalem"

Richard Mather (1596-1669) Biography. Father of Increase Mather. Designer of the "Half-Way Covenant" (1662): adults who had not convinced the elders of their experiential qualifications would remain members and could have their children baptized. However, they and their children would not be full-members, they would not have the right to vote in church affairs, nor would they receive communion. Writings: Cambridge Platform of Discipline, Discourse on the Church Covenant, Treatise on Justification. Commentary: "Roots of Congregationalism"

John Davenport (1597-1670) Biography. Immigrated to Boston in 1637 and left one year later to found the New Haven colony in Connecticut. Writings.

Roger Williams (1603-1683) Biography /// Another biography. Banished from Boston for his heretical religious views that Puritans should separate from the Church of England and keep a separation between church and state in the new colonies. Founded Providence, Rhode Island, as the first genuinely democratic society in America. He guaranteed religious liberty to all settlers, and demanded peaceful relations with Indians. Writings: "A Plea for Religious Liberty", "The Bloody Tenent of Persecution", "Forced Worship". Commentary: "Freedom's Forgotten Hero"

Thomas Shepard (1605-1649) He arrived at Boston in 1635 and served as Pastor of Cambridge Church until his death. Writings: "The Inability of All Duties to Save", Sermons, More Writings

John Norton (1606-1663) Biography. Minister of Ipswich church, helped to write the Cambridge Platform, delegate with Simon Bradstreet to Charles II. He answered British critics of New England church polity in "Responsio ad totam questionum syllogen". Writings: "A Discussion on the Sufferings of Christ" (1653), "The Orthodox Evangelist" (1654), "Election Sermon " (1657), "Life of Reverend John Cotton" (1658), "The Heart of New England Rent by the Blasphemies of the Present Generation" (1660).

Mary Dyer (1611-1660) Biography. Follower of Anne Hutchinson and later of the Quaker George Fox. Executed in Boston for heresy. Writings: Letters from prison

Anne Dudley Bradstreet (c.1612-1672) Biography /// Another biography /// Bibliography. First publisher of poems in North America. Writings: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America (1650), A Dialogue Between Old England and New, Selected Poetry, More Poetry Commentary: The Last Touchstone of Anne Bradstreet, Poet of Purity, Anne Bradstreet and Her Time

Charles Morton (1627-1698) Biography. Arrived in 1686 to become a minister of the Cambridge Church. Also served as fellow, Vice-President, and occasional tutor at Harvard College. America's first professional philosopher. Writings: A Logick System, System of Physicks, Ethicks, Pneumatics, The Spirit of Man (1693).

Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705) Biography /// Another biography. Arrived in 1638; graduate of Harvard, pastor in Malden, Mass., Fellow of Harvard (1652-54, 1697-1705). His son Edward and grandson Edward Jr. were both Hollis Divinity Fellows at Harvard; his great-grandson David Tappan followed Edward Jr. as Hollis Divinity Fellow. Wigglesworth’s “God’s Controversy with New-England” despaired of the colony's spiritual apathy. Writings: Day of Doom (1662), “God’s Controversy with New-England” (1662)

Mary Rowlandson (1636-1711) Biography. Rowlandson's Narrative of her Indian captivity was the only extended prose work by a woman published in seventeenth-century New England. Increase Mather wrote the preface. Writings: The Sovereignty and Goodness of GOD...a narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682).

Increase Mather (1639-1723) Biography /// Another biography. Pastor of North Church, Boston; President of Harvard College (1685-1701); intermediary with Congregational churches and James II. Author of treatises on Indians and noted sermons. Helped to end the Salem witchcraft trials. Father of Cotton Mather. Writings: Essay For the Recording of Illustrious Providences, "Awakening Truths Tending to Conversion" (1710), "A Testimony against Several Profane and Superstitious Customs", Cases of Conscience concerning Evil Spirits (1693). Commentary: "Increase Mather and the Comets"

Samuel Willard (1640-1707) Biography. Pastor of Boston's Old South Church and President of Harvard College (1701-1707). Writings: "The Character of a Good Ruler", "On Witchcraft in Groton", Compleat Body of Divinity (1726).

Samuel Sewall (1652-1730) Biography /// Another biography /// More information. Prominent Boston citizen, magistrate of Salem witch trials who later denounced them. Early lone voice against slavery. Writings: "Revolution in New England Justified" (1691, with Edward Rawson), The Selling of Joseph (1700), The Diary of Samuel Sewall.

William Brattle (1662-1717) Biography. Congregationalist minister of the Cambridge Church (1696-1717). Taught of mathematics, natural philosophy, and divinity at Harvard from 1686 to 1717. Involved in the Brattle Street Church Manifesto (1699) which supported Stoddards' Half-Way covenant. His logic text was used at Harvard until the 1760s. Writings: Compendum Logicae secundum Principia D. Renati Cartesii plerumque efformatum, et catechistice propositum (c.1707 and many editions thereafter).

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) Biography. Congregationalist minister of Boston's Old North Church and leader of the Salem witch trials. His book The Christian Philosopher and Willard's Compleat Body of Divinity are the most thorough theological efforts of Colonial times, unmatched until Jonathan Edwards' last works in the 1750s.  Writings: Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), The Christian Philosopher (1721), Wonders of the Invisible World, Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, "On the Demonic Possession of Elizabeth Knapp", "A Christian at His Calling", "What Must I Do To Be Saved?", "Satisfaction in God", "The Duties of Children to Their Parents" Commentary: "Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World"

Figures:

Benjamin Colman (1673-1747) Biography. Minister of Boston's Brattle Street Church. An unconventional preacher, he came into conflict with Jonathan Edwards by abolishing public recital of religious experiences and introducing the reading of Scripture. With Edwards, he protested the extreme denunciations of clergy by Awakening preachers Whitefield and Tennent. One of the first Americans to publish a book about women. Writings: "Government the Pillar of the Earth" (1730), The Honour And Happiness Of The Vertuous Woman, Gospel Order Revised.

William Tennent (1673-1746) Biography /// Another biography. Founded the "Log College" in Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, where he trained many of the next generation of Presbyterian ministers for the Middle colonies. Father of Gilbert Tennant, Awakening preacher. Writings: Collected Sermons.

Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776) Biography. Born in Scotland and educated in Edinburgh, Colden came to Philadelphia in 1710 to practice medicine. After becoming wealthy in trade and moving to New York he was appointed Surveyor General, and served in the administration of Governor George Clinton. In 1761 he became lieutenant governor of New York. Colden was also one of the most learned men in the colonies. He wrote his own critique of Newton, The Principles of Action in Matter (1751). He became a botanist of the new Linnaean system of classifying flora and made significant contributions to medical literature. He also published his History of the Five Indian Nations (1727) Writings: The Philosophical Writings of Cadwallader Colden.

Jonathan Dickinson (1688-1747) Biography. Presbyterian theologian and Princeton's first President. Writings: "The Marks of Saving Faith"

Theodore Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1692-1748) Biography. German immigrant minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. A leading preacher of the Great Awakening in New Jersey. Writings: Sermons.

Samuel Johnson (1696–1772) Biography /// Another biography /// Bibliography. No, not Boswell's Johnson. Anglican clergy and missionary, founder of King's College (now Columbia). Johnson an idealistic philosophy with George Berkeley (who resided in Newport, RI 1728-32) and Jonathan Edwards. Writings: Introduction to Philosophy (1731), A System of Morality (1746), Elementa Philosophica (1752), His Career and Writings.

Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764) Biography. The most important Presbyterian preacher of the Great Awakening. Divided the Presbyterians with his controversial attacks, starting in 1740, on more conservative pastors. Writings: "The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry".

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Article at Stanford Enc. Phil. /// Biography /// Another Biography /// Chronology /// Bibliography /// Works of Jonathan Edwards.  Greatest American theologian of the century, Pastor of the First Church of Northampton (1729-1751), pastor and missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, Mass. (1752-1758). Writings: Sermons, More Sermons, Still more sermons, "The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards (1722-1723)", "Justification by Faith Alone", A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, Concerning Religious Affections, Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion, How to Know if You are a Real Christian,Treatise on Grace, "God Glorified in Man's Dependence", "Directions for Judging of Persons' Experiences",  "A Humble Attempt...", An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity, Freedom of the Will, Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume One, Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume Two. Commentary: Edwards and Discerning the Work of the Spirit, Edwards Resources, Christian History Journal, "The Anachronism of Jonathan Edwards".

Thomas Clap (1703-1767) Biography /// Another biography. Congregationalist minister of the First Church in Windham, Mass. (1726-40). Scholar of mathematics and natural sciences. Rector of Yale (1740-66). He initially opposed the Great Awakening revivalism, but he later reversed course and joined the Congregationalist New Lights. Writings: History and Vindication of the Doctrines received and established in the Churches of New England (1755), Nature and Foundation of Moral Virtue and Obligation (1765).

Charles Chauncy (1705-1787) Biography. Great-grandson of Charles Chauncy, President of Harvard (1654-72). Congregational minister of Boston's First Church (1727-1787). The leader of the "Old Lights" who were not persuaded (unlike Edwards) that Great Awakening revivals brought genuine conversions. Converted to universalism and unitarianism late in life. Writings: "Letter against Revivalism" (1642), Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England (1743), Compleat View of Episcopacy (1771), Salvation for All Men (1782), The Mystery Hid from Ages and Generations (1784).  Commentary: Chauncy vs. Whitefield, Chauncy vs. Edwards, Dwight vs. Chauncy

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Biography /// Another Biography /// Documentary History. Printer, inventor, America's most celebrated scientist. Deputy Postmaster of Pennsylvania and diplomat to England, then became a leading Revolutionary. Writings: "Doctrine of Religion" (1731), Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, "On Reverend Whitefield" Commentary: Franklin as a Diplomat

George Whitefield (1714-1770) Biography. Another biography. One more biography. Most famous evangelist during the Great Awakening. For example, on 12 October 1740 he drew a crowd of some 30,000 to the Boston Common (Boston, the largest colonial city at the time, was only 13,000 people). Writings:  Selected Sermons, More Sermons, Still more sermons, "Repentance and Conversion", "The Holy Spirit". Commentary: "Lightning Rod of the Great Awakening", Wesley's Sermon for Whitefield's Death

John Woolman (1720-1772) Biography /// Bibliography. Quaker and anti-slavery leader. Writings: Journal (1774).

Jonathan Mayhew (1720-1766) Biography. Congregationalist minister of Boston's West Church (1747-66). Early Arminian, unitarian, and universalist. His 1750 sermon was widely influential for later patriots, including Samuel Adams. He promoted the concept of colonial union, and his sermons against the 1765 Stamp Act encouraged the Boston riots that year. Writings: Seven Sermons (1749), "A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers" (1750)

John Witherspoon (1722-1794) Biography /// Another biography /// Bibliography. Prominent Presbyterian theologian and revolutionary legislator. President of the College of New Jersey [Princeton] from 1778-1794. He brought Scottish "Common-Sense" Realism to the Colonies. He was a Representative to the Continental Congress, and the only minister to sign the Declaration of Independence. Dozens of his students were prominent Congressmen, Governors, and a U.S. Presidents.    Writings: "The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men" (1776), The Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon. Commentary: "Witherspoon and Corrupted American Presbyterianism"

Samuel Davies (1723-1761) Biography. Presbyterian minister and Awakening preacher, leading the efforts of "New Side" Presbyterians to evangelize Virginia and the South. President of the College of New Jersey (1759-1761). Writings: "The Curse of Cowardice" (1758).

Websites: Religion and the Founding of the American Republic /// Religion and Revolution /// Constitutional States /// African Americans and Revolution /// Revolution Timeline /// Texts: "Puritanism, Enlightenment, and the U.S. Constitution" /// Religion and the American Revolution /// American Political Writing, 1760-1789 /// founding.com /// Liberty Library /// Their Own Words Influential European Thinkers: John Milton /// John Locke /// William Blackstone /// Major Documents: The Federalist Papers /// The Anti-Federalist Papers /// Founding Documents /// U.S. Constitution, 1787 /// U.S. Constitution, Now /// Bill of Rights and the Amendments to The Constitution /// Religious Liberty Clauses in State Constitutions /// Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention /// Key Terms: Federalism /// Republicanism /// Liberalism /// Social Contract ///

Revolutionaries:

Samuel Adams (1722-1803) Biography. Elected to Massachusetts Assembly, 1765; Delegate to the First Continental Congress, 1774; Signed Declaration of Independence, 1776; Member of Massachusetts State constitutional convention, 1781; Governor of Massachusetts, 1794-1797. Writings: "The Rights of the Colonists" (1772), Writings of Samuel Adams

John Dickinson (1732-1808) Biography. Lawyer, politician. His Letters from a Farmer defended America's political rights. Writings: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies (1767-68), Selected Writings

George Washington (1732-1799) Biography /// Papers. Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. 1st President of the United States. Writings: First Inaugural Address (1785), Second Inaugural Address (1789)

John Adams (1735-1826) Biography /// The Adams Papers. 2nd President of the United States. Writings: "On Calvinist Origins of the Constitution", "Novanglus" (1775), "Thoughts on Government", State of the Union Addresses.

Patrick Henry (1736-1799) Biography. Virginia legislator and first Governor of Virginia. Writings: "The War Inevitable" (1775), "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" (1775)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Biography. Revolutionary War writer, gained fame as author of several works promoting independence and religious toleration. Served in the War as aide to Gen. Nathanael Greene, and appointed by Congress as secretary to the committee on foreign affairs. Writings: Common Sense, The Rights of Man, The American Crisis, "African Slavery in America", Age of Reason (1794).

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Biography /// Career Facts /// Digital Archive. Author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia statute for religious freedom, member of the Continental Congress, statesman, diplomat, Secretary of State, Vice-President, and the 3rd President of the United States. Writings: "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" (1774), Notes on the State of Virginia, Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom (1786),  Jefferson's Bible, Jefferson's notes on Slavery

John Jay (1745-1829) Biography /// Another biography. Statesman, diplomat. Fifth President of Continental Congress, first Chief Justice of the U.S., Minister to Spain, Secretary of foreign affairs, co-author of the Federalist Papers (with Madison and Hamilton).

Hugh Henry Brackenridge (1748-1816) Biography. An army chaplain during the Revolutionary War famous for preaching fiery patriotic sermons to the soldiers. Became a lawyer, got involved in the Whiskey Rebellion, and served as a Pennsylvnia Supreme Court judge. Writings: Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca in Arabia, Modern Chivalry.

James Madison (1751-1836) Biography /// James Madison Center /// Papers of James Madison. Member of the Continental Congress, author of the Bill of Rights and 29 of the Federalist papers, Secretary of State, and the 4th President of the United States.  Writings: Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, First Inaugural (1809), Second Inaugural (1813), Memorial and Remonstrance (1785), Proposing the Bill of Rights (1789), Detached Memoranda (c.1817), Letter to F.L. Schaeffer (1821)

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) Biography /// Another biography /// Hamilton on the Web. Member of Continental Congress, co-author of the Federalist Papers, First Secretary of the Treasury. Writings: "The Farmer Refuted" (1775).

Major Events and Documents:
Albany Plan for a Union, 1754
Governor Glen: "The Role of the Indians in the Rivalry Between France, Spain, and England", 1761
Treaty of Paris, 1763
Daniel Dulany: "Considerations", October 1765
The Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, October 19, 1765
Stamp Act Grievances, with accounts by Hutchinson and Holt of colonial reactions in Boston and New York, 1765
William Pitt: "Speech on the Stamp Act", January 14 1766
John Dickinson: Letters from a Farmer, 1767-68
Anonymous Account of the Boston Massacre, 5 March, 1770
The Boston Gazette Describes the Boston Massacre, 1770
Captain Thomas Preston's account of the Boston Massacre, 13 March 1770
James Wilson: "Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament",1774
Daniel Leonard's letter of January 9, 1775
Edmund Burke: "Speech on conciliation with America", March 22, 1775
The Charlotte Town Resolves, 1775
Patrick Henry: "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death", 1775
Second Continental Congress, Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms, July 6 1775
Yankee Doodle
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
The Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776
Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence, 4 July, 1776
Charles Inglis, "The True Interest of America Impartially Stated," 1776
Letter of George Washington to John Hancock, September 24, 1776
Albigence Waldo: "From the diary of a Surgeon at Valley Forge", 1777
United States Articles of Confederation, 1781
Samuel Cooper: "A Sermon on the Day of the Commencement of the Constitution", 1776
Draft for a Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, by Jefferson 1779
From the diary of Ebenezer Denny, 1781, describing the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown
Treaty of Paris, 1783
Contract Between the King and the Thirteen United States of North America (1783)
James Madison: "Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
The Annapolis Convention, 1786
The Barbary Treaties, 1786
US Constitution, 1787
Letter of Transmittal of US Constitution
James Madison: "Speech proposing the Bill of Rights", 8 June 1789
Bill of Rights and the Amendments to The Constitution

 

The Early Republic

Religious liberty presented new opportunities for evangelical activity, and also denominational strife and division. Calvinism rapidly diminished in influence as the country grew. Arminianism spread as fast as the revivalist preachers (mainly Presbyterian and Methodist), while Unitarianism's Arminian doctrines took over Boston. Intellectuals struggled with Calvinism's views of predestination, determinism, and the elect (read a contemporary account of such struggle), just as intellectuals during the 1870s and 80s would agonize over science and evolution. Websites: Early US History /// 19th Century American Studies /// Bibliography of American Philosophy /// Their Own Words /// American Professors of Philosophy and Theology /// Texts: Journals of Lewis and Clark /// Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1831) /// Influential British Philosophers: William Paley: Natural Theology (1800) /// Adam Smith /// S. T. Coleridge: Aids to Reflection (1825) /// Key Documents: Northwest Ordinance (1787) /// Washington's First Inaugural Address (1785) /// Washington's Second Inaugural Address (1789) /// Nineteenth Century Periodicals /// Commentary: American Philosophy in the 18th and 19th Centuries /// American Moral Philosophy in the 1800s /// Psychology in America /// Religion in the Early Republic /// The Christian History Timeline /// New England Calvinists /// Academic Orthodoxy and the Arminianizing of American Theology /// The Connecticut Wits /// Publicists and Orators, 1800-1850 /// The Romantic Revolution, 1800-1860 ///

New Colleges: Colleges rapidly appeared in every state, usually controlled by a religious denomination. Typical is Benjamin Rush's educational plan for Dickinson College /// American Colleges and Seminaries /// Williams (1793) /// Bowdoin (1794) /// Union (1795) /// Amherst (1821) /// Virginia (1825) /// Oberlin (1833) /// University of Michigan (1845) ///

Major Seminaries: Seminaries allowed specialization in theology and often supplied advanced post-graduate education; they also were born from internal denomination strife. Andover Theological Seminary (1807) /// Harvard Divinity School (1811) /// Princeton Theological Seminary (1812) /// Union Theological Seminary (1812) /// Yale Divinity School (1822) ///

Scholarly and Literary Journals: North American Review (founded 1815) /// Christian Spectator (Yale, 1819-1838) /// Princeton Review (1830- ) /// Southern Literary Messenger (1834) /// Southern Quarterly Review (1842) /// New Englander and Yale Review (1843- ) /// Bibliotheca Sacra (1843- ) /// Scientific American (1845- ) /// Harper's New Monthly Magazine (1850) ///

Catholic Church: Roman Catholics in America /// Eastern Catholics in America /// The Jesuits ///

Presbyterians: Presbyterian Documents /// In 1782 the American Presbyterian bodies, the Reformed Presbytery and two Associate Presbyteries, were unified with a Constitution of the Associate-Reformed Synod. The Presbyterian Church in Scotland rejected the union in 1783, publishing its complaints in The Constitution of the Associate Reformed Synod in America, considered, disowned, and testified against, as inconsistent with the REFORMATION Constitution of Britain and Ireland; the Reformed Presbytery /// Fifty years later the Presbysterians split apart again in the Schism of 1837 ///

Methodism: Epistemology and Theology in American Methodism /// The Development of Holiness Thought /// Asa Shinn ///

Baptists: The American Baptists /// Baptist History Page ///

Disciples of Christ / Churches of Christ: The American Restoration Movement /// Stone-Campbell Resources ///

Unitarianism: Origins of Unitarianism and Universalism /// Unitarianism in America /// Unitarianism in the US /// Unitarianism before 1825 /// American Unitarianism /// Was Jefferson a Unitarian? ///

Deism: Origins /// English Deism /// French Deism /// American Deism /// Hume and Deists on Miracles /// Franklin's Statement of Deism /// Paine's Age of Reason /// Allen's Reason: The Only Oracle of Man ///

Figures:

Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) Biography /// Another biography /// More biography. Physician, then professor of chemistry in Philadelphia, and later (1780) professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Delegate to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Defender of Scottish realism and universalism. Suggested to Thomas Paine the title "Common Sense" for his famous essay. Founder of a Philadelphia abolition society. Writings: "Observations on the Government of Pennsylvania" (1777), Enquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes Upon the Moral Faculty (1786), Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (1798), "Of the Mode of Education Proper to a Republic" (1798), Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind (1812). Commentary: Destroying Angel

Elhanan Winchester (1751-1797) Biography /// Bibliography. Trained as a Baptist minister, converted to Universalism in Philadelphia and was its foremost representative. Found an ally in Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), another early Universalist. Writings: "God All in All"

Samuel Stanhope Smith (1751-1819) Biography. Presbyterian minister, Professor of Moral Philosophy (1779-1794) and President of Princeton College (1794-1812). Writings: An Essay on the Causes and Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1788), Sermons (1801), Lectures on the Evidences of the Christian Religion (1809), Love of Praise (1810), Lectures on Moral and Political Philosophy (1812), Lectures on Moral and Political Philosophy, The Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion.

Timothy Dwight (1752-1817) Biography /// Another biography /// Website /// Bibliography. Congregational minister; grandson of Jonathan Edwards; President of Yale (1795-1817); founder of Andover Seminary. Continued Edward's work by inaugurating the "New Haven" theology, later continued by Nathaniel Taylor. Member of the "Connecticutt Wits" literary group. Writings: "The Character of God", The Anarchaid (1886-87, with Joel Barlow and others), The Conquest of Canaan (1785), The Triumph of Infidelity (1788), Greenfield Hill: A Poem in Seven Parts (1794), The Nature and Danger, of Infidel Philosophy (1798), "Some Events of the Last Century" (1801), "Sermon at the Opening of Andover" (1808), Theology: Explained and Defended (1818-19).

Thomas Cooper (1759-1839) Biography. Cooper's materialistic philosophy, like Benjamin Rush's, followed Joseph Priestley's views by advancing a strict psychological materialism and arguing that mental processes, including insanity, are explainable by motions of the nervous system. Religious objections prevented Thomas Jefferson from appointing Cooper to a professorship at the University of Virginia. Writings: Philosophical Writings, Selected Works

Lyman Beecher (1775–1863) Biography /// Bibliography /// Family Papers Archive. Father of Henry Ward Beecher, Catharine Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York City minister and abolitionist. Commentary: "Beecher and Religious Pluralism".

William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) Biography /// Another biography /// Works /// Bibliography. Minister of Federal Street Church in Boston. Early Unitarian and inspirational figure for many Transcendentalists. Opposed slavery. Writings: "The Moral Argument Against Calvinism (1809), "Unitarian Christianity" (1819), "Means of Promoting Christianity", "Self-Culture" (1838), Slavery (1842), Selected Sermons. Commentary: "Channing and Unitarianism"

Nathaniel William Taylor (1786-1858) Biography. Congregational theologian, Dwight Professor of Theology at Yale (1822-58), established the Yale Divinity School. Defender of the "New Haven" theology of Congregationalism. Writings: Practical Sermons (1858); Lectures on the Moral Government of God (1859); Essays and Lectures upon Select Topics in Revealed Theology (1859).

Asa Mahan (1799-1889) Biography. President of Oberlin College (1835-1850). With colleague Charles Finney and Nathaniel Taylor, promoted theological perfectionism or "Oberlin" theology. Writings: Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection (1839), Doctrine of the Will (1845), A System of Intellectual Philosophy (1854), Science of Logic (1857), A Science of Natural Theology (1867), A Critical History of Philosophy (1873). Commentary: "Development of American Holiness Theology", "Nineteenth Centry Philosophy and Holiness Theology", "Principles of Church Discipline"

Francis Lieber (1800-1872) Biography. Edited the Encyclopedia Americana. Professor of history and political economy at University of South Carolina (1835-56) and Columbia College (1856-65); also Professor of political science at Columbia Law School (1860-72). Writings: Manual of Political Ethics (1838, 1876), Legal and Political Hermeneutics (1838), Laws of Property (1842), Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1852).

Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) Biography /// Another biography /// Yet another biography. Congregational pastor in Hartford, Connecticutt (1833-59). Writings: Christian Nurture (1847), God in Christ (1849), Christ in Theology (1851), The Vicarious Sacrifice (1856), Nature and the Supernatural (1858), Sermons for the New Life (1858), Work and Play (1864), Moral Uses of Dark Things (1868), Building Eras in Religion (1881). Commentary: The American Schliermacher, A Forgotten Figure

The Scottish "Common-Sense" Realist movement reached America before the Revolution and spread widely by 1820. Common-sense realism was first taught in America by John Witherspoon (1722-1794), President of the College of New Jersey. This movement endorsed freedom of the will and tended to support other Arminian challenges to strict Calvinism. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), Charles Hodge (1797-1878), and Asa Mahan (1799-1889) also were major conduits for Scottish realism into America. Common-sense realism transformed the Presbyterian church in Mid-Atlantic America, and also influenced liberal Congregationalism and Boston Unitarianism. Scottish realism brought greater sophistication to American philosophy, beginning its liberation from theology. Professors of "Philosophy" became more common at colleges; they graduated from seminaries, but they pursued "mental" and "moral" philosophy, following Scottish realist Thomas Reid's division of philosophy in his volumes Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man (1785) and Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind (1788).

Leaders of Scottish Realism: Thomas Reid (1710-1796) /// Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) /// Thomas Brown (1778-1820) /// William Hamilton (1791-1856)

Critics of Scottish Realism: John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) ///

Figures:
Levi Hedge (1766-1844) Biography. Levi Hedge was Harvard's first professor of philosophy. He was a tutor (1795-1810) and then Professor of logic and metaphysics (1810-27), and then Professor of natural religion, moral philosophy and civil polity (1827-32). Father of Frederick Henry Hedge. Writings: Elements of Logick (1816).

Francis Wayland (1796-1865) Biography. Baptist minister and President of Brown University (1827-1865). Writings: The Elements of Moral Science (1835), The Elements of Political Economy (1837), Limitations of Human Responsibility (1838), The Elements of Intellectual Philosophy (1854), Letters on the Ministry of the Gospel (1863).

Thomas Cogswell Upham (1799-1872) Biography. Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Bowdoin College, Maine (1824-1867). Among his students were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Writings: Elements of Mental Philosophy (1827, 1845), Philosophical and Practical Treatise on the Will (1831), Manual of Peace (1836), Inward Divine Guidance.  Commentary: Mysticism in American Wesleyanism, Upham and Ethical Reflection

Mark Hopkins (1802-1887) Biography. Professor of moral and intellectual philosophy (1830-87) and President (1836-72) of William College. His former student James A. Garfield once said: "The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other." Writings: Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity (1844), Lectures on Moral Science (1863), The Law of Love and Love as a Law (1869).

Francis Bowen (1811-1890) Biography. Bowen was Unitarian in religion and realistic in philosophy. Instructor in intellectual philosophy and political economy (1835-39); Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity at Harvard (1853-89). Editor of the North American Review (1843-1854). Writings: Essays on Speculative Philosophy (1842), The Principles of Metaphysical and Ethical Science Applied to the Evidences of Religion (1855), A Treatise on Logic, or the Laws of Pure Thought (1864), An American Political Economy (1869).

James McCosh (1811-1894) Biography. Taught logic and metaphysics at Queen's College, Belfast; came to America to become President of Princeton College (1868-88). Writings: The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral (1850), The Intuitions of the Mind Inductively Investigated (1860), The Scottish Philosophy (1875).

Noah Porter (1811-1892) Biography. Another biography. Yale Professor of moral philosophy and metaphysics (1847-1892), and President of Yale (1871-1886). Adapted Scottish Realism with German idealism. Writings: The Human Intellect (1868), The Elements of Intellectual Science (1871), The Sciences of Nature versus the Science of Man (1871), Science and Sentiment (1882), Elements of Moral Science, Theoretical and Practical (1884), Kant's Ethics (1886).

Joseph Haven (1816-1874) Biography. Professor of mental and moral philosophy at Amherst College (1851-58); Professor of systematic theology at Chicago Theological Seminary (1858-70); Professor of mental and moral philosophy at Chicago University (1873-74). Writings: Mental Philosophy (1858), Moral Philosophy, Including Theoretical and Practical Ethics (1859).

 

Transcendentalism and the Second Great Awakening

Texts: Transcendentalism /// Transcendentalism and Evangelicism /// The Oneida Shakers /// Brook Farm and its History /// Parrington: The Transcendental Mind /// Websites: American Transcendentalism Web /// Transcendentalism /// New England Transcendentalism /// Transcendentalists.com /// Religion and the New Republic /// New Churches in New York /// Influences: Samuel Taylor Coleridge /// English Romantics /// Key Terms: Pantheism /// Transcendentalism /// Publications: The Dial (1840-44) and Selected Articles ///

Figures:

Charles G. Finney (1792-1875) Biographies /// Life of Finney /// More biographies. Revivalist preacher and professor at Oberlin College.  Writings: Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1835), Lectures to Professing Christians, Systematic Theology (1846-47), Sermons on Gospel Themes, Works of Charles Finney. Commentary: Finney's Synthesis of Wesleyan And Covenant Theology, A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Finney vs. the Westminster Confession, Charles Finney's Perfectionism

James Marsh (1794-1842) Biography. Congregationalist minister; professor of philosophy at the University of Vermont; President of the University of Vermont (1826-1833). Like Hickok, Marsh brought German idealism to America. Writings: Edited Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Aids to Reflection (1829), The Remains of the Rev. James Marsh (1843).

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) Biography. Operated the Temple School in Boston, with Sarah Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Father of Louisa May Alcott. He was an abolitionist whose house was a stop on the Underground railroad. Founded the Concord School of Philosophy in 1879. Writings: Conversations with Children on the Gospels (1836-37), Orphic Sayings, "Ralph Waldo Emerson". Commentary: Practical Transcendentalism

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800-1878) Biography /// Another biography /// Another biography. Daughter of Lyman Beecher. Writings: Suggestions Respecting Improvements in Education [excerpt] (1829), Social, Political, and Philosophical Works

Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) Biography. Bibliography. Novelist, historian, and philosopher associated with the Transce