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ABSTRACT Meditative Poetry, Covenant Theology, and Lucy Hutchinson's Order and Disorder Seth Andrew Wright, Ph.D. Dissertation

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ABSTRACT Meditative Poetry, Covenant Theology, and Lucy Hutchinson's Order and Disorder Seth Andrew Wright, Ph.D. Dissertation ABSTRACT Meditative Poetry, Covenant Theology, and Lucy Hutchinson’s Order and Disorder Seth Andrew Wright, Ph.D. Dissertation Chairperson: Phillip J. Donnelly, Ph.D. I argue that Order and Disorder (1679), Lucy Hutchinson’s biblical epic on Genesis, is a meditative poem, while claiming that Hutchinson’s study of Independent theologian John Owen’s covenant theology informed her narration of the events in Genesis. I offer a reading of the poem as a whole to show how these claims illuminate Hutchinson’s construal of Genesis. These claims permit me to engage scholarly literature on three heads. First, by demonstrating that Order and Disorder is a meditative poem, I seek to extend the current discussion of seventeenth-century meditative poetry to include poems narrating the content of the poet’s meditation alongside poems narrating the process. Second, by showing Order and Disorder’s specific theological background, I challenge accounts claiming Lucretian atomism and Republican politics as the poem’s intellectual foundation. Finally, I offer the first extended account of meditation in Owen’s theology. Chapter One puts Hutchinson and her work in the historical and critical context, while Chapter Two argues that Owen understood meditation as an intellectual duty whose final cause is communion with God by understanding biblical revelation, and that Hutchinson assumed a similar view in Order and Disorder. As she discerned scriptural truth through meditation, Hutchinson rejected the Epicurean philosophy she had encountered while translating Lucretius. In Chapter Three, I argue that Theologoumena Pantodapa, Owen’s major treatise on covenant theology, which Hutchinson studied closely, implicitly confronts Thomas Hobbes’s contract theory by arguing that communion with God is the highest end of humanity. Chapters Four—Six show how Hutchinson’s approach to meditation and covenant undergird her dilations of Genesis 1—3 in Cantos 1—5. By contending that people can commune with God by meditating on Creation, Providence, and the covenant, Hutchinson denies the ontological materialism found in Lucretius. Finally, Chapters Seven and Eight argue that Hutchinson uses Cantos 6—20 to narrate Genesis 4—31 in terms of an Independent ecclesiology grounded in Owen’s covenant theology. By claiming that the Church is distinguished by acknowledging Providence through meditation, Hutchinson contests the definition of the Church in the Act of Uniformity. The Epilogue suggests Owen regarded Hutchinson’s meditative project as successful. Copyright © 2014 by Seth Andrew Wright All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments................................................................................................................v Epigraph ............................................................................................................................. vi Chapter One: Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Chapter Two: Order and Disorder as a Meditative Poem .................................................17 Chapter Three: The Polemical Context of John Owen’s Theologoumena Pantodapa ......81 Chapter Four: Reformed Theology and Order and Disorder: Canto 1 as Theological Prolegomenon ......................................................................................................130 Chapter Five: Cantos 2 and 3 and the Legibility of Creation ..........................................159 Chapter Six: The Covenant of Grace in Cantos 4 and 5 ..................................................192 Chapter Seven: Order and Disorder and Contemporary Ecclesiological Debates ..........217 Chapter Eight: The Holy State as the Church: Hutchinson’s Ecclesiology .....................254 Chapter Nine: Epilogue ....................................................................................................304 Notes ................................................................................................................................308 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................332 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my wife, Julie: we both know that I could never hope to articulate all that you mean to me. Life is better with you, and I am glad you have joined me for this adventure. I love you. To my parents, Tim and Donna: thank you for teaching me how to live by your words and lives. Your love has made me into myself. I could not imagine better parents. To my parents-in-law, John and Joan: your countless acts of kindness have allowed me to bear the burden of my work more easily. You have blessed me more than you know. To my supervisor, Dr. Donnelly: Not only have you taught me to think and write, you have done so with patience, gentleness, and grace that display God’s image. Thank you for a good transatlantic working relationship and the many Skype conferences. Your incisive criticisms are nearly always right, but, more importantly, are invariably made with my good in mind. You are also the only person I have ever heard tell a joke that uses the word “ontology,” a fact which, though trifling, bears mention here. I also wish to thank Dan Nodes for reviewing my Latin translations; Jim Barcus for always funding me; and the libraries at Baylor University, Waco; Queen’s University, Belfast; and Union Theological College, Belfast. As the old scholars always say, what is good in my work comes from my mentors; the errors are mine alone. Finally, I acknowledge the God whose thoughts and ways are incomprehensibly above mine: to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be all glory forever, world without end. Amen. v EPIGRAPH It took me two years’ work to make this learnèd book. Into whose learnèd leaves twelve learnèd eyes, perhaps, might look. vi CHAPTER ONE Introduction Until recently, Lucy Hutchinson’s biblical epic based on the book of Genesis, Order and Disorder, suffered from general neglect in the study of seventeenth-century literature, despite its lively engagement with contentious contemporary issues such as Lucretian atomism, the political contractualism associated with Thomas Hobbes, and the Non-conformist reaction to the Clarendon Code. The poem’s first five cantos were published anonymously in 1679, and for over two centuries were mistakenly attributed to Hutchinson’s brother, Sir Allen Apsley. Meanwhile, the last fifteen cantos remained in manuscript. In 2000, however, Oxford historian David Norbrook successfully identified Hutchinson as the author, and in 2001, he published the poem in its entirety for the first time. Since then, there has been a steady stream of articles on Order and Disorder, but much about the poem remains unclear. Given the poem’s biblicist nature, the lack of inquiry into Hutchinson’s theological context is surprising; Evan Getz’s unpublished dissertation from 2008 remains the only sustained venture into that field. In this dissertation, I contribute to the discussion that Getz began as I investigate the relationship between Hutchinson’s devotional practice of meditation and her theological study as both relate to Order and Disorder. The first section of this introduction demonstrates Hutchinson’s significance as a seventeenth-century writer by offering a brief biographical account describing her as a well-educated woman, a Republican, and a pious Independent. The last two sections of the introduction show the significant contribution that this dissertation makes to the current critical discussion of Order and Disorder. I 1 chart the course that critical investigation has taken thus far with a view to showing the need for a study of Hutchinson’s theology. Finally, I outline my argument to demonstrate how this dissertation fills that need by revealing Hutchinson’s profound engagement with Genesis through her practice of meditation and the Reformed conception of covenant theology. This dissertation, then, constitutes a significant and original contribution to the scholarly literature on Order and Disorder. More importantly, however, the general lack of insight into the poem’s theological contours, despite Hutchinson’s demonstrable interest in theology, means that this dissertation addresses one of the literature’s most pressing needs. Hutchinson in Context Hutchinson was born on 29 January, 1620, in the Tower of London. Her parents were Sir Allen Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower, and his third wife, Lucy, who was the daughter of Sir John St. John. A precocious learner, Lucy was afforded an extensive education that was unusually varied and academic for girls of her time; she excelled in subjects such as Latin. This love of learning brought Lucy together with her husband, John Hutchinson of Nottinghamshire, who was studying at Oxford at the time. When he chanced to enter a house where Lucy was staying, he was intrigued enough by her Latin books to seek her out. Although the Apsleys, who were royalists, were displeased that their son-in-law was a Republican, the marriage seems to have been happy and rewarding for both Lucy and John despite the uncertainties and difficulties resulting from the Civil War. They had 8 children. At the outbreak of the Civil War, John was appointed to defend Nottingham Castle for the Republican cause; he later signed the death warrant of Charles I. However, his Republican beliefs led him to oppose Cromwell’s increasing 2 power, and Hutchinson was consequently marginalized from political life during the Protectorate. After the Restoration, Lucy led
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