DOCSLIB.ORG

History of Christian Doctrine

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
History of Christian Doctrine <" HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE BY HENRY C. SHELDON rROFESSOR OF HISTORICAL THEOLOGY IN BOSTOX UNIVERSITY IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. IL From A.D. 1517 to 1885 NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIX SQUARE 1886 '^' Copyright, 1885, by Henkt C. Sheldon. All rights reserved. CONTENTS OF VOL. 11. iFourtf) l^eriotr (a.d. 1517-1720). Page Introductiox 3 CHAPTER I. FACTORS IX THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMEXT OF THE PERIOD. Section 1. Philosophy 13 " 2. Communions, Creeds, and Authors 29 " 3. Scripture and Tradition 61 CHAPTEE II. THE GODHEAD. Section 1. Existence, Essence, and Attributes of God 84 " 2. The Trinity 96 CHAPTEE III. CREATION AXD CREATURES. Section 1. Creation 104 " 2. Angels 105 " 3. Man 106 CHAPTER IV. REDEEMER AXD REDEIIPTIOX. Section 1. The Person of Christ 134 " 2. The Redemptive Work of Christ 138 " 3. Appropriation of the Benefits of Christ's "Work . 153 iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. THE CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTS. Page 182 Section 1. The Church " 2. The Sacraments 191 CHAPTEE VI. ESCHATOLOGY. 213 1. Chiliasm, or Millenarianism 213 2. Condition between Death and the Eesurrection 215 3. The Resurrection and Final Awards iFiftlj Jletiotr (a.d. 1720-I885). Introduction 221 CHAPTER I. FACTORS IN THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERIOD. Section 1. Philosophy 223 " 2. Communions, Creeds, and Authors 261 " 3. Scripture and Tradition 281 CHAPTER II. THE GODHEAD. Section 1. Existence, Essence, and Attributes of God .... 300 " 2. The Trinity 311 CHAPTER III. CREATION AND CREATURES. Section 1. Creation of the World 319 " 2. Angels 323 " 3. Man 324 CONTENTS. V CHAPTER IV. REDEEMER AND REDEMPTION. Pack Section 1. The Person of Christ 348 ••' 2. The Redemptive Work of Christ 353 " 3. Appropriation of the Benefits of Christ's Work ... 362 CHAPTER V. THE CHURCH AND THE SACRAMENTS. Section 1. The Church 378 " 2. The Scacrainents 382 CHAPTER YI. ESCHATOLOGY. 1. Millenarianism 389 2. Condition between Death and the Resurrection 391 3. The Resurrection 392 4. Final Awards 395 Index op Subject Matter 401 Index of Authors 435 151T-1720. INTRODUCTION. We enter now upon an era in the history of Christian doctrine inferior in importance to none since the age of the apostles, — an era from which one might date, without pre- sumption, the second birth of Christianity. Remarlcably fruitful in immediate results, the Reforma- tion was still more fruitful in preparing for remote and permanent acquisitions. It bears comparison with the first century in the work of breaking down barriers. Primitive Christianity, by opening a way through the complex legal- ism and proud assumptions of Pharisaic Judaism, gained room for a glorious advance in religious thought and life. So the Reformation, in cleaving the fortifications of legality and pretentious infallibility by which the Romish hierarchy sought to perpetuate its spiritual despotism, provided ines- timable opportunities of progress. Its work was absolutely indispensable. It bears unmistakably the marks of divine providence. Let hostile criticism say what it may ; let it point to foibles in the conduct or to crudities in the dogmas of the Reformers ; the fact still remains, that the Reforma- tion purchased for Christianity the noblest opportunities and prospects which it has in the world to-day. If it gave scope for some temporar}^ errors, it secured a chance for vigorous, healthy, and permanent growth. Designedly or undesign- edly it placed men in the way of fulfilling their divine call- ino; to freedom and intelligence. 4 HISTOEY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTKESTE. [Period IV. The starting-point of the Reformation can be understood only by recaUing the bent of the scholastic system. The more characteristic features of that system, as we have seen, tended to the common result of shadowing the direct rela- tion of the individual to Christ. The views that were enter- tained of the person of Christ, of the Church, of the sacra- ments, of the merit of works, and of the saints, all combined to place the individual at a distance from his Redeemer. It mattered little tliat He was allowed to be the primary fountain of grace. The fountain was made so remote, and so many objects were interposed, that naturally, before the attention could pass beyond the motley throng, it was dissi- pated and lost. A crowd of rival agencies invaded the soli- tary eminence which is accorded to Christ in the New Testa- ment. In place of dependence upon the personal Redeemer was put dependence upon the hierarchy and the means which it saw fit to prescribe. In fact, the standard teaching in the centuries preceding the Reformation robbed the individual of his rights as a citizen of the kingdom of Christ, and degraded him to the condition of a mere subject, — a sub- ject slavishly dependent upon the priestly hierarchy. That hierarchy stood over him as his judge, and the sole dispenser to him of the grace of salvation. It pronounced opposition to its decrees among the most damnable of all offences, and magnified the virtue of blind submission. It reckoned all outside of its own circle in a state of religious childhood, incapable of ever reaching their majority in this world, and hindered their approach to the springs of knowledge in the Scriptures, or denied that approach altogether. It put reconciliation with itself in place of reconciliation with God. It appointed to the individual the conditions of par- don, and proclaimed his sins remitted or retained. It emphasized the sacraments as indispensable means of salva- tion, and yet gave the priest the power, by a perverse exer- cise of his will, to nullify the sacrament which he assumed to administer. It left the penitent without assurance of 1517-1720.] INTRODUCTION. 5 having received the sacramental grace, as he could be cer- tain neither of the valid ordination nor of the honest inten- tion of the priest. In a word, the hierarchy, as judge over the individual, made him come to its tribunal for every grace, and sent him away without proper guaranty of any. This prerogative it could and did exercise quite differently under different circumstances. It could be very stringent or very lax. Just before the Reformation it assumed, to a conspicuous degree, the rc>?(3 of laxity, — acted the part of a frivolous, unscrupulous judge. Indulgence peddlers, like Tetzel and Samson, represented that the Church is no hard and grudging mistress, but ready to deal out pardon with a lavish hand. An artificial legalism was joined with a shal- low estimate of the demerit of sin. But through all this laxity the principle of absolute dependence upon the hie- rarchy remained the same, and the anathema was ready for any one who should dare to impeach its prerogatives. As the essence of the Romish perversion consisted in de- pressing the individual and obscuring his direct relation to Christ, the starting-point of a true counteracting movement must needs be the exaltation of the individual to his proper independence and rights, and the emphasizing of his direct relation to Christ. Such was the starting-point of the Refor- mation. It began with an assertion of the rights of the indi- vidual, his release from arbitrary and unscriptural authority, his relative independence of ecclesiastical machinery, his privilege to come into direct relation to Christ, and to find therein assurance of salvation. Whether Luther fully ap- prehended it at first or not, his doctrine of justification by faith was a decided step toward the emancipation of the individual from the absolute authority of the hierarchy. The proper ground for receiving a principle like this had been prepared in numerous minds and hearts by the opening of the sixteenth century. Ever since the closing era of the Crusades there had been a growing pressure against eccle- siastical restraints. The national spirit gathered strength, 6 HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [Period IV. and became more and more impatient and bold against the claims of the papacy. The new impulse given to com- mercial enterprise, the more energetic tone of secular in- dustries, left a narrower sphere to that romantic zeal which responded readily to the calls of the Church. The efforts of the more earnest minds to reform the Church through such attempts as culminated in the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, though abortive in their imme- diate aim, left still their impress. The voices of such her- alds of evangelical truth as Wycliffe, Huss, and Savonarola ceased not to reverberate in many hearts. The revival of classic studies and the many discoveries of the age gave a new impulse to freedom of thought, while the spread of mysticism enlarged the number of those who sought satis- faction to their souls rather in personal communion with God by prayer and meditation, than in the round of cere- monial observances. All these developments served naturally as forerunners of religious freedom. There were many minds who only needed to hear a voice speaking with prophetical energy and confidence the word of religious emancipation, in order to their receiving it with deep conviction and joy. In the profound experiences of the monk of Erfurt, Providence prepared the prophet's voice that was required. The pre- eminently Pauline experience of Luther brought into his soul with midday clearness the idea of justification by faith. As he had proved to the full the death-working power of all attempts to justify one's self by means of works, the thought of justification by simple faith upon Christ came to him like a new gospel, like a message of glad tidings from heaven. The truth thus grasped penetrated to the utmost his deep and enthusiastic nature, and kindled a fire that must needs communicate itself to other hearts.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bible Matters: the Scriptural Origins of American Unitarianism
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Vanderbilt Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive BIBLE MATTERS: THE SCRIPTURAL ORIGINS OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM By LYDIA WILLSKY Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In Religion May, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor James P. Byrd Professor James Hudnut-Beumler Professor Kathleen Flake Professor Paul Lim Professor Paul Conkin TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………3 CHAPTER 1: WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING AND THE PASTORAL ROOTS OF UNITARIAN BIBLICISM………………………………………………………………………………..29 CHAPTER 2: WHAT’S “GOSPEL” IN THE BIBLE? ANDREWS NORTON AND THE LANGUAGE OF BIBLICAL TRUTH………………………………………...................................................77 CHAPTER 3: A PRACTICAL SPIRIT: FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, THE BIBLE AND THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH…………………………………………………………………...124 CHAPTER 4: THE OPENING OF THE CANON: THEODORE PARKER AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF BIBLICAL AUTHORITY…………………………………………..168 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………...........................205 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………213 INTRODUCTION The New England Unitarians were a biblical people. They were not biblical in the way of their Puritan ancestors, who emulated the early apostolic Church and treated the Bible as a model for right living. They were a biblical people in the way almost every Protestant denomination of the nineteenth century
    [Show full text]
  • Prodigal Sons and Daughters: Unitarianism In
    Gaw 1 Prodigal Sons and Daughters: Unitarianism in Philadelphia, 1796 -1846 Charlotte Gaw Senior Honors Thesis Swarthmore College Professor Bruce Dorsey April 27, 2012 Gaw2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... 3 Introduction: Building A Church ...................................................................................... .4 Chapter One: Atlantic Movements Confront a "National" Establishment ........................ 15 Chapter Two: Hicksites as Unitarians ................................................................. .45 Chapter Three: Journeys Toward Liberation ............................................................ 75 Epilogue: A Prodigal Son Returns ..................................................................... 111 Bibliography ................................................................................................. 115 Gaw3 Acknow ledgements First, I want to thank Bruce Dorsey. His insight on this project was significant and valuable at every step along the way. His passion for history and his guidance during my time at Swarthmore have been tremendous forces in my life. I would to thank Eugene Lang for providing me summer funding to do a large portion of my archival research. I encountered many people at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the Friends Historical Library who were eager and willing to help me in the research process, specifically
    [Show full text]
  • Unitarian Members of Parliament in the Nineteenth Century
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Stirling Online Research Repository Unitarian Members of Parliament in the Nineteenth Century A Catalogue D. W. Bebbington Professor of History, University of Stirling The catalogue that follows contains biographical data on the Unitarians who sat in the House of Commons during the nineteenth century. The main list, which includes ninety-seven MPs, is the body of evidence on which the paper on „Unitarian Members of Parliament in the Nineteenth Century‟ is based. The paper discusses the difficulty of identifying who should be treated as a Unitarian, the criterion chosen being that the individual appears to have been a practising adherent of the denomination at the time of his service in parliament. A supplementary list of supposed Unitarian MPs, which follows the main list, includes those who have sometimes been identified as Unitarians but who by this criterion were not and some who may have been affiliated to the denomination but who were probably not. The borderline is less sharp than might be wished, and, when further research has been done, a few in each list may need to be transferred to the other. Each entry contains information in roughly the same order. After the name appear the dates of birth and death and the period as an MP. Then a paragraph contains general biographical details drawn from the sources indicated at the end of the entry. A further paragraph discusses religious affiliation and activities. Unattributed quotations with dates are from Dod’s Parliamentary Companion, as presented in Who’s Who of British Members of Parliament.
    [Show full text]
  • Very Rough Draft
    Friends and Colleagues: Intellectual Networking in England 1760-1776 Master‟s Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Department of Comparative History Mark Hulliung, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master‟s Degree by Jennifer M. Warburton May 2010 Copyright by Jennifer Warburton May 2010 ABSTRACT Friends and Colleagues: Intellectual Networking in England 1760- 1776 A Thesis Presented to the Comparative History Department Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts By Jennifer Warburton The study of English intellectualism during the latter half of the Eighteenth Century has been fairly limited. Either historians study individual figures, individual groups or single debates, primarily that following the French Revolution. My paper seeks to find the origins of this French Revolution debate through examining the interactions between individuals and the groups they belonged to in order to transcend the segmentation previous scholarship has imposed. At the center of this study are a series of individuals, most notably Joseph Priestley, Richard Price, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. John Canton, Rev. Theophilus Lindsey and John Jebb, whose friendships and interactions among such diverse disciplines as religion, science and politics characterized the collaborative yet segmented nature of English society, which contrasted so dramatically with the salon culture of their French counterparts. iii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • A Pack by the Worship Panel Recognising The
    WORSHIP RESOURCE MATERIAL FROM THE WORSHIP PANEL Recognising the bicentenary of the death of Theophilus Lindsey Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) – The Reluctant Dissenter? In November 2008 we will be celebrating the bicentenary of the death of Theophilus Lindsey in 1808. Was he just a pious and learned minister or one of the most controversial and important clergymen of the later eighteenth century? Can these two views be reconciled? Lindsey left the Anglican Church in 1773, finding that he could no longer subscribe to the creeds of the church, and moved to London. In April 1774 he established the first avowedly unitarian congregation in the country, based in a converted auction room in Essex Street, just off The Strand. Would the Unitarian denomination in Britain exist today without him? General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, Essex Hall, 1-6 Essex Street, London WC2R 3HY Contents Thumbnail Sketch 1 Historical Overview by Howard Hague 3 The Life of Theophilus Lindsey 3 Catterick and the Feathers Tavern Petition 3 London and the Opening of Essex Street Chapel 4 An Analysis of Lindsey’s Life and Work 4 Readings – Extracts from Lindsey’s (and other) Writings 5 The Reason for Lindsey’s Resignation from the Church of England 5 On the Opening of the Essex Street Chapel – 17 April 1774 5 Press Report on the Opening of Essex Street Chapel, 1774 6 Lindsey’s Views on the American War of Independence 6 Lindsey’s Views on God, Christ and the Trinity 6 On Heretics 7 Other Resources 7 Hymns 7 Websites of Interest 7 CD ROM 8 Further
    [Show full text]
  • Unitarian Theology II
    Unitarian Theology II Papers given at the Unitarian Theology Conference, Mill Hill Chapel, City Square, Leeds 13th – 14th October 2017 Edited by David Steers Published by Faith and Freedom with financial support from the Chalice Fund of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches 2018 Cover Design: Alison Steers Cover Photos: James Barry ISSN 0014-701X Contents Introduction ……………… 4 Jim Corrigall Wrestling, Resisting, Resting – different ways of responding to the Divine voice ………… 6 Ant Howe Models of God and the Meaning of Love ………15 Jane Blackall The Unchained Spirit: Kenotic Theology and the Unitarian Epic 28 Lewis Connolly Theology from Women’s Experience ………37 Ann Peart Early Unitarians and Islam: revisiting a ‘primary document’ … 48 Justin Meggitt Dialogues of Faith: An Adamsian Approach to Unitarian Evangelism ……………60 Stephen Lingwood Contributors ………………73 Introduction The second Unitarian Theology Conference in the UK of recent years was held at Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel in central Leeds on Friday, 13 th and Saturday, 14 th October 2017. This was a successor to the one-day Theology Conference in Manchester of May 2016, which posed the question: What is Unitarian theology? In 2017, the organisers (Stephen Lingwood, Jo James and myself) were looking for a wider reach. And so it became a two-day event, with a theme for each day. ‘God’ came first, with three speakers taking different approaches: how one can relate to a Personal God; how our experiences of love shape our concepts of God; and thirdly, the quest for a ‘non-realist’ God. ‘Unitarianism’ was the focus on the second day: exploring theology from women’s experience (particularly relating to Unitarianism); the significance of encounters between early Unitarians and Islam; and finally asking whether Unitarians can be ‘evangelists’, and if so, how? The speakers all tackled their subjects in depth and with passion, and we are extremely grateful to them: Rev Ant Howe, Dr Jane Blackall, Rev Lewis Connolly, Rev Dr Ann Peart, Dr Justin Meggit and Stephen Lingwood.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF (Page 18 Missing)
    Durham E-Theses Peculiar ground: the theology of Isaac Watts Wilkinson, R. W. How to cite: Wilkinson, R. W. (1981) Peculiar ground: the theology of Isaac Watts, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7841/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Abstract Peculiar Ground The Theology of Isaac Watts by R. W. Wilkinson The thesis is designed to demonstrate what was distinctive about Isaac Watts. It begins with a brief account of his life and background. There is no attempt at comprehensive coverage but rather a discussion of significant detail. Then follows a survey of Watts' work - first his poetry, then his prose. Watts1 writings on the Atonement are critically analysed, followed by his views on election and predestination. The purpose here is to demonstrate that Watts had a profound commitment to traditional theology, in particular to the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
    [Show full text]
  • New College, Hackney (1786-96): a Selection of Printed and Archival Sources
    New College, Hackney (1786-96): A Selection of Printed and Archival Sources Stephen Burley, Dr Williams’s Centre for Dissenting Studies Second edition, revised 2011 (First published 2010) 1 Stephen Burley ([email protected]) New College, Hackney (1786-96): A Selection of Printed and Archival Sources Dr Williams’s Centre for Dissenting Studies CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5 Abbreviations 6 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 8 2. NEW COLLEGE CHRONOLOGY, 1786-96 12 3. COLLEGE MEMBERS 19 3.1. Introduction 19 3.2. Notable Students 20 3.3. Full Student List 26 3.4. Tutors 35 3.5. Governors 41 3.6. Notable Benefactors 48 4. CURRICULUM 56 4.1. Introduction 56 4.2. Belsham on Daventry Academy 57 4.3. William Hazlitt, 6 October 1793 59 4.4. William Hazlitt, [October 1793] 61 4.5. William Hazlitt, [November 1793] 63 4.6. William Hazlitt, [late Autumn 1793] 65 4.7. Gilbert Wakefield’s Memoirs (1792) 67 5. ORIGINS 74 5.1. Introduction 74 5.2i. First Meeting, 13 Dec. 1785 (DWL MS 187.2, fol. 3) 75 5.2ii. First Meeting, 13 Dec. 1785 (DWL MS 38.14, fols. 1-2) 77 5.3. Second Meeting, 16 Dec. 1785 79 5.4. Third Meeting, 4 Jan. 1786 81 5.5. Resolutions, 28 Jan. 1786 84 5.6. Resolutions, 10 Mar. 1786 88 5.7. Governors’ Letter, 28 Mar. 1786 95 5.8. Printed Satirical Letter, 19 Apr. 1786 99 6. THE NEW COLLEGE MINUTE BOOK 103 6.1. Introduction 103 6.2. 27 July 1786 104 6.3. 5 July 1786 107 6.4.
    [Show full text]
  • A Liberal Religious Heritage, a Guide to Unitarianism
    A Liberal Religious Heritage Andrew M. Hill © 1985 Contents 1 Beginnings 2 Liberal Religion in Switzerland, Poland and Transylvania 3 Unitarians in England and Wales 4 Non-subscribing Presbyterianism in Scotland & Ireland 5 General Baptists and Universalists in Britain Universalists in the United States 6 Unitarianism in the United States of America 7 Liberal Religion Elsewhere Unitarians and religious liberals centre their faith in personal experience, informed to greater or lesser extent by scriptures and traditions. Their religious position arose in two ways: First, by questioning certain Christian teachings (e.g. that God is a Trinity of three co-equal "persons"; or that God wills to save only a few; or that people are depraved by nature). Some of the names used grew from these questionings (e.g. Unitarian, Universalist and General Baptist). Secondly, by distinguishing between essential and non-essential Christian teachings. This raised doubts about the use of creeds and statements of faith. This is called `non-subscribing' (i.e. a refusal to subscribe to formal creed of statement of belief). 1 Beginnings The historical roots of this religious heritage are deep in Renaissance and Reformation Europe. Centred in northern Italy and reaching its climax in the 15th century, the Renaissance was a remarkable rebirth of culture and learning. Building upon Renaissance insights the Reformation in the 17th century questioned some of the assumptions and practices of the Catholic Church, and in some areas even caused its disruption. There were in effect three different Reformations:- 1) The Protestant Reformation is sometimes known as the Magisterial Reformation, because of its association with three great teachers (magisterium): Martin Luther (1483-1546) in Germany, Ulrich Zwingli (1485-1531) in Switzerland, and John Calvin (1509-1564) in Geneva.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Unitarianism: in Transylvania, England and America Volume II (1952)
    A History of Unitarianism: In Transylvania, England and America Volume II (1952) This text was taken from a 1977 Beacon Press edition of Wilbur’s book and was made possible through the generous and kind permission of Earl Morse Wilbur’s family, with whom the copyright resides. PREFACE THE AUTHOR'S earlier work, A History of Unitarianism: Socinianism and Its Antecedents (Cambridge, 1945) was designed, though no indication was given in the preface or elsewhere, as the first of two volumes on the general subject. The present volume therefore is to be taken as the second or complementary volume of the work, and any cross-references to the former work are given as to Volume 1. The present book has been written with constant reference to available sources, and the author's obligation to various persons for valued help given still stand; but further acknowledgment is here made to Dr. Alexander Szent-Ivanyi, sometime Suffragan Bishop of the Unitarian Church in Hungary, who has carefully read the manuscript of the section on Transylvania and made sundry valued suggestions; to Dr. Herbert McLachlan, formerly Principal of the Unitarian College, Manchester, who has performed a like service for the chapters of the English section; and to Dr. Henry Wilder Foote for his constant interest and for unnumbered services of kindness in the course of the whole work I can not take my leave of a subject that has engaged my active interest for over forty-five years, and has furnished my chief occupation for the past fifteen years, without giving expression to the profound gratitude I feel that in spite of great difficulties and many interruptions I have been granted life and strength to carry my task through to completion.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright © 2013 Ryan Patrick Hoselton All Rights Reserved. The
    Copyright © 2013 Ryan Patrick Hoselton All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. “THE LOVE OF GOD HOLDS CREATION TOGETHER”: ANDREW FULLER’S THEOLOGY OF VIRTUE A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Theology by Ryan Patrick Hoselton December 2013 APPROVAL SHEET “THE LOVE OF GOD HOLDS CREATION TOGETHER”: ANDREW FULLER’S THEOLOGY OF VIRTUE Ryan Patrick Hoselton Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Michael A. G. Haykin (Chair) __________________________________________ Gregory A. Wills Date_____________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. v PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... vi 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1 2. “THE POWER OF SINFUL MEN”: FULLER AND MORAL INABILITY .......7 Fuller's Life and the Shaping of His Thought .....................................................7 “In Nature We See No Bounds to Our Inquiries”: Fuller's Eighteenth Century Enlightenment Moral Context .....................18 Joseph Priestley and
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph Priestley and the Intellectual Culture of Rational Dissent, 1752
    Joseph Priestley and the Intellectual Culture of Rational Dissent, 1752-1796 Simon Mills Department of English, Queen Mary, University of London A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 I confirm that this is my own work and that the use of material from other sources has been fully acknowledged. 2 Abstract Joseph Priestley and the Intellectual Culture of Rational Dissent, 1752-1796 Recent scholarship on the eighteenth-century polymath Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) has focused on his work as a pioneering scientist, a controversial Unitarian polemicist, and a radical political theorist. This thesis provides an extensive analysis of his comparatively neglected philosophical writings. It situates Priestley’s philosophy in the theological context of eighteenth-century rational dissent, and argues that his ideas on ethics, materialism, and determinism came to provide a philosophical foundation for the Socinian theology which came to prominence among Presbyterian congregations in the last decades of the century. Throughout the thesis I stress the importance of rational debate to the development of Priestley’s ideas. The chapters are thus structured around a series of Priestley’s engagements with contemporary figures: chapter 1 traces his intellectual development in the context of the debates over moral philosophy and the freedom of the will at the Daventry and Warrington dissenting academies; chapter 2 examines his response to the Scottish ‘common sense’ philosophers, Thomas Reid, James Beattie, and James Oswald; chapter 3 examines his writings on materialism and philosophical necessity and his debates with Richard Price, John Palmer, Benjamin Dawson, and Joseph Berington; chapter 4 focuses on his attempt to develop a rational defence of Christianity in opposition to the ideas of David Hume; chapter 5 traces the diffusion of his ideas through the syllabuses at the liberal dissenting academies at Warrington, Daventry, and New College, Hackney.
    [Show full text]