"THE CATHOLIC MISSIONARY OF BOSTON" FR. JOHN THAYER: CONTROVERSIALIST AND ECUMENIST?
When John Thayer (1758-1815) returned to Boston in 1790 after a nine-year stay in Europe, he was no longer a Congregationalist minister, but a Catholic priest. His publicly-announced mission was to convert his countrymen to the true faith. Thayer was a magnet for apologetical controversy, and a some...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Catholic Historical Society
2001
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| In: |
American catholic studies
Year: 2001, Volume: 112, Issue: 1/4, Pages: 23-47 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | When John Thayer (1758-1815) returned to Boston in 1790 after a nine-year stay in Europe, he was no longer a Congregationalist minister, but a Catholic priest. His publicly-announced mission was to convert his countrymen to the true faith. Thayer was a magnet for apologetical controversy, and a sometimes strident and disruptive presence in the American Catholic church during the next several years, as he debated all comers in a contest published in book form in 1793. In the summer and fall of 1792, Thayer, as "The Monitor," offered twelve 300-500 word essays in the Boston Argus. Far less doctrinally precise or specifically Catholic, the pieces dealt with such topics as the passions, religious duties, death, miracles, unfaithfulness in an age of Enlightenment, and Christian hope. It may be argued that Thayer was attempting to make common cause with fellow Christians against the inroads of rational religion, such as Unitarianism, a new and significant development in the Boston area. In his Monitor series, Thayer was arguing for the authentic transcendent claims of traditional Christianity in the face of an emerging "civil religion," like that also espoused by Benjamin Franklin, whose own religious creed offered a sort of distillation of several beliefs common to theistic faiths, but with an emphasis on the social usefulness of religion. Such an interpretation adds some richness to the usually startling "us versus them" interpretation of Fr. John Thayer's moment in the apologetical sun. |
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| ISSN: | 2161-8534 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic studies
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