The Theology of Cruelty: A New Look at the Rise of Arminianism in Eighteenth-Century New England
With the growth of Arminianism in the post-Awakening period, a decisive move away from Puritan orthodoxy occurred in New England. In this article I shall map the contours of this movement, using as my guide a recent work of the political theorist, Judith Shklar. In her book Ordinary Vices, Shklar de...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1992
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| In: |
Harvard theological review
Year: 1992, Volume: 85, Issue: 3, Pages: 335-356 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
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| Summary: | With the growth of Arminianism in the post-Awakening period, a decisive move away from Puritan orthodoxy occurred in New England. In this article I shall map the contours of this movement, using as my guide a recent work of the political theorist, Judith Shklar. In her book Ordinary Vices, Shklar describes the rise of Enlightenment thought in the West as primarily a shift in value structures. As a result of this shift from the moral universe defined by the seven deadly sins to one defined by the “ordinary vices,” traditional political, moral, and religious systems were viewed from a new perspective. From this perspective it was possible to perceive in these systems a deeply entrenched cruelty. I shall argue that Shklar's analysis can be fruitfully applied to changing trends in religious thought that were wrought by the Enlightenment in America. Specifically, I shall argue that the rise of Arminianism and the general liberalization of Christianity in eighteenth-century New England were informed by a perception, created by the influx of Enlightenment values into the colonies, of the systemic cruelty of the body of doctrine traditionally maintained by orthodox Puritan divines. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4517 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0017816000003345 |