Archibald Simpson and the Care of Souls in Lowcountry South Carolina: Sustaining Evangelical Communities between Awakenings
Using a case-study approach, this article examines the importance of pastoral care in the lives, churches, and communities of eighteenth-century British North Americans, focusing in particular on Presbyterians in the South Carolina Lowcountry. It is based on the underutilized diary of Presbyterian m...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Soc.
2012
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| In: |
The journal of Presbyterian history
Year: 2012, Volume: 90, Issue: 2, Pages: 60-71 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Using a case-study approach, this article examines the importance of pastoral care in the lives, churches, and communities of eighteenth-century British North Americans, focusing in particular on Presbyterians in the South Carolina Lowcountry. It is based on the underutilized diary of Presbyterian minister Archibald Simpson, who served churches in Scotland and South Carolina from 1753 to circa 1790. The article argues that pastoral care played a vital role in sustaining evangelical communities in the decades after the Great Awakening and must take its place alongside itinerancy, forceful preaching, and transatlantic networking as a factor in the growth and maintenance of the evangelical movement. Emphasizing the social dimensions of pastoral care, it elaborates the performative aspects of this practice, showing how Simpson deployed pastoral care to establish credibility and enhance ministerial authority. It also treats the pastoral visit as a shared, even cathartic, experience, arguing that calls to the sick and dying in particular bound Simpson's people not only to him but to one another in profound ways. The text draws generously from Simpson's diary, capturing the language and drama of these intimate, vulnerable, emotionally charged, and socially dangerous pastoral encounters. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of Presbyterian history
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