Counter-Enthusiasms: the Rationalization of False Prophecy In
COUNTER-ENTHUSIASMS: THE RATIONALIZATION OF FALSE PROPHECY IN EARLY ENLIGHTENMENT ENGLAND By William Cook Miller A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland May, 2016 ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on the historical problem of false prophecy—or, more generally, the need to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate forms of contact with the divine—as it influences then-innovative and now-pervasive attitudes toward language and knowledge in early enlightenment England. Against the prevalent senses that the history of popular religion can be characterized either in terms of false consciousness or disenchantment, I argue that the vernacular Bible empowered unauthorized subjects (the poor, women, heterodox thinkers) to challenge dominant English culture in the theological vocabulary of the prophet. This power led to a reaction—which I call counter-enthusiasm—which both polemicized popular prophets as “enthusiasts” beyond the reach of reason, and developed new categorical understandings of experience in order to redefine relations of spirit, body, and word so as to avoid the problem of unlicensed spiritual authority. I concentrate on three counter-enthusiasms—as articulated by Henry More, John Locke, and Jonathan Swift—which fundamentally rethink the links between humanity, divinity, and language, in light of--and in the ironically occupied guise of—the figure of the enthusiast. I argue further that the discourse of enthusiasm contributed centrally to the process known as “the rationalization of society,” which involved the distinction of the categories of self, society, and nature. KEYWORDS: prophecy, enthusiasm, rationalization, enlightenment, language theory, religion, mimesis, hermeneutics, materialism, totality, irony, satire, English Civil War, Interregnum, Restoration, Henry More, Cambridge Platonism, John Locke, Jonathan Swift, Jürgen Habermas.
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