DOCSLIB.ORG

Surrogate Scriptures: American Christian Bestsellers and the Bible, 1850-1900

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Surrogate Scriptures: American Christian Bestsellers and the Bible, 1850-1900 Surrogate Scriptures: American Christian Bestsellers and the Bible, 1850-1900 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By John Thomas Acker Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2017 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Jared Gardner, Advisor Dr. Elizabeth Hewitt Dr. Hannibal Hamlin Copyrighted by John Thomas Acker 2017 Abstract This dissertation examines four bestselling Christian novels published in the United States between 1850 and 1900: Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Gates Ajar (1868) by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Ben-Hur (1880) by Lew Wallace, and In His Steps (1896) by Charles Sheldon. These four books reached millions of readers in a time when many Christians refused to read novels at all, helping to launch what is today a $4B Christian merchandise industry. More importantly, amid what Nathan Hatch has called the “democratization of American Christianity,” popular Christian novels offered a measure of cultural unity, despite splintering churches and increasing skepticism. To explain these novels’ literary popularity and religious impact, I approach them as what I call “surrogate Scriptures.” Just as surrogates are both representatives and substitutes, in a sense these novels can both replace the Bible and point readers back to it. All four novels confirm the Bible’s centrality and authority in Christian theology and practice, but they also showcase changing attitudes toward reading, understanding, interpreting, and applying Biblical content. The four novelists I study here stake out very ii different positions on these issues, but they all contribute to a vibrant and fascinating Christian literary culture. Each of my four chapters evaluates one or more of three related theological concepts: revelation, hermeneutics, and exegesis. Chapter 1, on Uncle Tom’s Cabin, examines the role of Bible reading in Augustine St. Clare’s conversion. I show how Stowe transforms the “take and read” scene from St. Augustine’s Confessions to link Bible reading to social action. In Chapter 2 I evaluate intertextuality in The Gates Ajar, in light of the novel’s diary-like structure. I track several of Phelps’ allusions and quotations, and show how she uses a range of artistic and theological resources to offer her readers both comfort and creativity. Next, in Chapter 3 I analyze the Magi’s origin stories in Ben-Hur, in light of doctrines of Christian supersessionism. These narratives, I argue, promote the idea that the Magi’s respective cultures and religions must inevitably give way to Christianity. Finally, Chapter 4 examines the role of writing and ethics in In His Steps. I contend that even though the characters ask “what would Jesus do?” to inform all their ethical decisions, they actively avoid studying or even reading any texts, especially the Bible. Overall, my study contributes to the existing scholarly literature by enriching and complicating our understanding of Christian bestsellers, and of 19th-century attitudes toward reading and applying the Bible. These four novels, though only representing a small portion of 19th-century Christian fiction, demonstrate diverse and sophisticated ideas about reading, faith, and imagination. Christian readers, writers, and publishers approached cultural engagement cautiously, especially with art forms that could distract iii or even mislead believers. Evaluating their strategies in terms of Biblical authority, not just doctrine or content, gives us a flexible and sophisticated framework for understanding a range of Christian fiction, both historical and contemporary. iv To Esther, with all my love. “The Lord hath been good to me in many ways; but thou, Esther, art the sovereign excellence of his favor.” –Ben-Hur v Acknowledgments Many people have helped make this dissertation possible, and I’m both pleased and humbled to acknowledge their support in what has been a long and strenuous journey. First, I benefited greatly from the institutional support of the Department of English at Ohio State University. Dr. Jared Gardner, my thesis advisor, has mentored and encouraged me throughout my PhD, and has taught me a lot about balancing personal and professional responsibilities. My other thesis committee members, Dr. Beth Hewitt and Dr. Hannibal Hamlin, likewise shared their advice and expertise, and challenged me to produce my best work. Dr. Steve Fink suggested the title for this study, offered valuable insight on Chapter 1, and served on my candidacy exam committee. During my MA and PhD coursework, Dr. Susan Williams and Dr. Elizabeth Renker capably advised me and helped me develop my seminar papers and thesis plans. Likewise, Dr. Wendy Hesford, Dr. Eddie Singleton, Dr. Scott DeWitt, and Dr. Jonathan Buehl oversaw my pedagogical training, which not only funded the first four years of my PhD research but helped me secure another teaching job when that funding ran out. I’d also like to thank the excellent Department of English staff, especially our superlative Graduate Coordinator Kathleen vi Griffin. She fielded hundreds of questions and processed endless piles of paperwork to keep the grad program and the department running smoothly. Second, I am grateful for the communities that facilitated my professional and intellectual development, and for those that provided vital social and emotional support throughout my graduate career. The users and administrators at Phinished.org offered a bounty of resources that helped me adjust to graduate school, including daily accountability and a safe space to vent. The Christian Graduate Student Alliance, led by Bob Trube, invited me to deliver several talks about my field and my research, and reminded me that there is a great big university outside the English department. My academic colleagues on the ChristLit and C19 listservs provided timely research advice and stimulating discussion, while discussions with my colleagues in the Editors’ Association of Earth improved my writing skills and broadened my expertise. From 2006 to 2012, my fellow denizens of Denney Hall helped me cope with graduate seminars, office hours, recalcitrant copiers, conference papers, panicked students, Bagel Tuesdays, and all the other little joys of graduate life. At the dissertation stage, feedback from Dr. Chad Allen’s dissertation writing seminar and from a Dissertation Writing Group organized by the OSU Writing Center helped me improve Chapters 1 and 4, respectively. Larry Paarlberg and his staff at the General Lew Wallace Study and Museum generously gave me access to Wallace’s personal library of religious books, which significantly enriched Chapter 3. Larry also introduced me to Wallace scholar Howard Miller, who provided several useful leads on Wallace’s religious views. For Chapter 2, Dr. Shirley Samuels helped me clarify a tricky vii passage in The Gates Ajar, and pointed me toward a valuable essay on the novel. The staff of the OSU Graduate School walked me through the process of completing and formatting my dissertation, while the OSU Libraries provided timely and consistent access to books and other research materials. I’m also grateful to my editing clients, who taught me a lot about organizing arguments and structuring dissertation chapters. My greatest debt, however, is to the members of my dissertation writing group: Anne Langendorfer, Nora McCook, Cate St Pierre, and Marion Wolfe. For the past two years they have helped me set goals, celebrate victories, rail at setbacks, apply to jobs, meet deadlines, and most importantly just keep writing. As Cate put it during one of our group chats, “you guys make me feel so much less alone.” Last but not least, my family has consistently encouraged my intellectual curiosity and supported my academic goals. During my dad’s MA and PhD they showed me how to live on a graduate stipend, and during my own they reminded me that there’s life outside one. They cheerfully tolerated visits and phone calls that were far too sporadic, and they never complained when I interrupted Thanksgiving or Christmas “break” to do battle with a paragraph or two. My cats Chapter and Draft were rather more vocal when my dissertation work delayed their meals, but their companionship made the work far more rewarding. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to my beautiful fiancée Esther. Without her in my life I would never have graduated: her steady faith fuels me, her patient ambition inspires me, and her gracious love gives me far more than I’ll ever deserve. viii Vita 2000................................................................Acker Christian Academy, summa cum laude 2006................................................................B.A., English & Comparative Literature, magna cum laude, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2008................................................................M.A., English, Ohio State University 2006-2012 .....................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of English, The Ohio State University 2013-2015 .....................................................Instructor, Department of English, Columbus State Community College 2006-present ..................................................Academic & Business Editor, Acker Editing and Consulting ix Publications Review of David Lyle Jeffrey and Gregory Maillet, Christianity and Literature: Philosophical Foundations and Critical Practice. Christianity and Literature 62.1 (Autumn
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Uses of the Judeo-Christian Bible in the Anti-Abolitionist
    THIS FIERCE GEOMETRY: USES OF THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN BIBLE IN THE ANTI-ABOLITIONIST AND ANTI-GAY RHETORIC OF THE UNITED STATES by Michael J. Mazza B. A., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1990 M. A., University of Pittsburgh, 1996 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Michael J. Mazza It was defended on April 15, 2009 and approved by Nancy Glazener, University of Pittsburgh Moni McIntyre, Duquesne University William Scott, University of Pittsburgh Committee Chair: Jean Ferguson Carr, University of Pittsburgh ii THIS FIERCE GEOMETRY: USES OF THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN BIBLE IN THE ANTI-ABOLITIONIST AND ANTI-GAY RHETORIC OF THE UNITED STATES Michael J. Mazza, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2009 Copyright © by Michael J. Mazza 2009 iii Jean Ferguson Carr_______ THIS FIERCE GEOMETRY: USES OF THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN BIBLE IN THE ANTI-ABOLITIONIST AND ANTI-GAY RHETORIC OF THE UNITED STATES Michael J. Mazza, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2009 This dissertation examines the citational use of the Judeo-Christian Bible in two sociopolitical debates within the United States: first, the debate over the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century, and second, the contemporary debate over gay rights. This study incorporates two core theses. First, I argue that the contemporary religious right, in its anti-gay use of the Bible, is replicating the hermeneutical practices used by opponents of the abolitionist movement. My second thesis parallels the first: I argue that the contemporary activists who reclaim the Bible as a pro-gay instrument are standing in the same hermeneutical tradition as nineteenth-century Christian abolitionists.
    [Show full text]
  • Beshalach (When He Sent)
    An Introduction to the Parashat HaShavuah (Weekly Torah Portion) Understanding the Torah From a Thematic Perspective Beshalach (When He Sent) By Tony Robinson Copyright © 2003 (5764) by Tony Robinson, Restoration of Torah Ministries. All rights reserved. —The Family House of Study— Examining the Parashat HaShavuah by Thematic Analysis Welcome to Mishpachah Beit Midrash, the Family House of Study. Each Shabbat1 we gather in our home and study the Scriptures, specifically the Torah.2 It’s a fun time of receiving revelation from the Ruach HaKodesh3. Everyone joins in—adults and children—as we follow the Parashat HaShavuah4 schedule. We devote ourselves to studying the Torah because the Torah is the foundation for all of Scripture. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the Torah will help us more fully understand the rest of the Tanakh5 and the Brit Chadasha.6 Furthermore, as Yeshua stated Himself, the Torah teaches about Him. So we study the Torah in order to be drawn closer to Yeshua, the goal of the Torah. As believers in the Messiah we have discovered the richness of the wisdom of the sages of Israel. These men, who devoted themselves to the study of the Torah, have left us a rich heritage. Part of that heritage is a unique method of learning and interpreting the Scriptures. It’s called thematic analysis. In thematic analysis we search for the underlying theme/topic of each passage of Scripture. By studying Scriptures related by a common theme, line upon line and precept upon precept, the Scriptures open up to us in a unique manner that is clearly inspired by the Ruach HaKodesh.
    [Show full text]
  • Issn 0017-0615 the Gissing Newsletter
    ISSN 0017-0615 THE GISSING NEWSLETTER “More than most men am I dependent on sympathy to bring out the best that is in me.” – George Gissing’s Commonplace Book. ********************************** Volume XXIV, Number 1 January, 1988 ********************************** -- 1 -- “Joseph”: A Forgotten Gissing Story of the Mid-Nineties edited by Pierre Coustillas. It was in the mid-nineties that Gissing wrote and published the most part of his short stories and, although for years no one could claim to have read all those of which a printed version and/or a manuscript was known to be extant, no unrecorded short story of that period is now likely to be discovered. Neither the author’s private papers nor his correspondence refer to any sum received from a publisher or an editor which cannot be accounted for satisfactorily. The three short stories cryptically listed in his “Account of Books,” have ceased to puzzle biographers and critics. “A Freak of Nature,” written for the unborn London Magazine, *************************************************** Editorial Board Pierre Coustillas, Editor, University of Lille Shigeru Koike, Tokyo Metropolitan University Jacob Korg, University of Washington, Seattle Editorial correspondence should be sent to the Editor: 10, rue Gay-Lussac, 59110-La Madeleine, France, and all other correspondence to: C. C. KOHLER, 12, Horsham Road, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 2JL, England. Subscriptions Private Subscribers: £5.00 per annum Libraries: £8.00 per annum *************************************************** -- 2 -- eventually appeared in Harmsworth’s Magazine under the title “Mr. Brogden, City Clerk,” and its author was paid £13.10s a long time before Harmsworth decided what format to give his magazine. “Their Pretty Way,” printed from the manuscript in George Gissing: Essays and Fiction (1970), was belatedly found to have originally appeared in Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper on 15 September 1895, while “Joseph” remained undisturbed in the files of the same newspaper for some eighty years, and has never been reprinted.
    [Show full text]
  • Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracy’S Future Carol Gilligan and David A
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-89898-0 - The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracy’s Future Carol Gilligan and David A. J. Richards Index More information Index abolitionism, radical, 141–144 Odyssey as complement for, 60 Child and, 142 patriarchy as theme in, 54, 60–61, 70–72 ethnology and, 227–228 personal and political psychology in, 60, feminism and, 141 72, 75, 79 of Garrison, 141–142 as political narrative, 60, 80 Grimke, Angelina, and, 142–144 resisting voices in, 79 Grimke, Sarah, and, 142–144 Roman gods in, 62–63, 78–79 Jacobs and, 142, 143 trauma in, 72 Mott and, 141, 143 violence in, 72, 73–74 Quakers and, 143 Aeschylus, 12–15, 17, 79. See also Oresteia Stanton and, 141–142, 143 The Age of Innocence (Wharton), 3, 198, women as part of, 3, 121, 140–144, 227, 209–212 232, 240 patriarchy as theme in, 209, 213 World Anti-Slavery Convention and, 141 resistance to patriarchy in, 209–212 Achilles Tatius, 87 Agrippa, 27, 37 Adam and Eve Agrippina the Elder, 33, 51 Augustine on, 103–104 Agrippina the Younger, 29, 33, 51 in The City of God, 103 Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 256 adultery “Ain’t I a Woman?” (Truth), 143 Jesus’ views on, 127–128 Ali, Ayaan Hirsi, 254 Julia the Elder and, 44–45 Alter, Robert, 132 under Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis, 2, Ambrose of Milan (Bishop), 102, 157 41–42 Augustine of Hippo and, influenced by, Aeneid (Vergil), 1, 2, 21, 52, 53, 59–81, 97, 110 99, 111, 159, 160, 164, 177, 185, 201, An American Requiem (Carroll), 156–157 225 The Anatomy of Prejudices (Young-Breuhl), Augustus Caesar as impetus for, 53, 59–60 239 Cleopatra in, 71 ancient Greece.
    [Show full text]
  • BEYOND THEOLOGY “What“What Wouldwould Jesusjesus Do?“Do?“
    BEYOND THEOLOGY “What“What WouldWould JesusJesus Do?“Do?“ Host: Have you ever heard the question “What Would Jesus Do?” Do you know where it came from? How does it apply to the world in which we live today? Stay with us and you’ll find out. Host (Following title sequence): “What would Jesus Do?” is a question that pops up frequently in American culture. You might hear it in a movie or see it on a t-shirt. You sometimes see it in its abbreviated form – four simple letters … WWJD. It’s been popular among young Christians, who’ve displayed it as an expression of faith and relied upon it as a way to approach life. Although it may be not as popular as it was 20 or 25 years ago, it’s still around and it still gives people something to think about. Young people often begin to think more seriously about matters of ethics and morality as they gain more independence. At Harvard University, students have been outspoken in their demands for a meaningful education, prompting the university to develop a curriculum that includes moral reasoning. Rev. Peter Gomes (Memorial Church, Harvard University): In our desire to be even- handed and not evangelistic in any sense any more, we raise all the great issues of the day, but we don’t presume to preach to people -- the university doesn't presume to preach to people -- to say this is a view better than that or this is what you should do as opposed to that, do this and don’t do that.
    [Show full text]
  • Holocaust Fiction with a Twist: Christians Imagining Jews in the Shoah a Paper Presented at the Association of Jewish Libraries
    1 Holocaust Fiction with a Twist: Christians Imagining Jews in the Shoah A Paper Presented at the Association of Jewish Libraries Annual Convention, Pasadena, CA June 19, 2012 Mark Stover California State University, Northridge Abstract Over the past 25 years, evangelical Christian authors have written dozens of popular novels across a spectrum of genres that have one theme in common: Jewish characters interacting with Christians during and after the Holocaust. In this paper, I will describe and analyze the works of multiple Christian authors who have written fictional narratives that imagine Jewish characters in a variety of situations related to the Shoah. Many of these books contain what are often referred to as "conversion narratives." I will critique these narratives and will address such questions as intended audience, the legitimacy of writing from an outsider's perspective, and the controversial nature of writing about religious conversion. Introduction I begin this paper by quoting from Yaakov Ariel, who has written a great deal about the nature of evangelical Christian attitudes toward Jews: "One must conclude that the evangelical attitudes toward the Jewish people and their activities on the Jews' behalf derive first and foremost from their evangelical messianic hope, which in its turn represents an entire worldview, conservative and reactive in nature. The evangelicals' pro- Israel attitude and their keen concern for the physical well-being of Jews derive from their beliefs about the function of the Jews in the advancement of history toward the arrival of the Lord. ... Evangelical Christians cannot, therefore, be described as philosemites. Their support of Jewish causes represent an attempt to promote their own agenda and their opinions on Jews have not always been flattering.
    [Show full text]
  • The Book: STORIES of EARLY SETTLERS in the WILDERNESS by JOSIAH PRIEST 1788 - 1851
    The Book: STORIES OF EARLY SETTLERS IN THE WILDERNESS BY JOSIAH PRIEST 1788 - 1851 It is a pleasure to present to you a wonderful story about a family coming to Delaware County many years ago. It embraces the history of the times and the many hardships that these brave settlers had to endure after the turn of the American Revolution. What makes this story so special to me is it's about my fourth great grandfather's family, Timothy Beach, a retired seaman captain who turned to farming in Connecticut before the Revolution broke out. The next course of events would forever mold my heritage by the tragedy to Timothy some years later. This book sheds light to some of these happenings. What is also special is that the author was the grandson to Timothy and much of the information supplied in his writings was by his mother, Deborah Beach Priest, Timothy's eldest child. Deborah, being the eldest child of the family, would have been a very reliable observer of the family's events following the Revolution, making her contributions to the contents of Josiah Priest's book very credible. Josiah was born the year after Timothy's sudden death and I am sure additional sources to his book came from his grandmother and Deborah's sibling, many of whom lived in Franklin, New York. This Beach family story is in several parts. One illustrates the early scouting for their new farmland by Timothy and his eldest son, Richard who was about 10 years old at the time. They set out in the Spring of 1784 and headed to an area near Catskill, New York.
    [Show full text]
  • THE SIGNIFICANCE of ALLEGORICAL CHRISTIAN to REPRESENT BUNYAN's LIFE in the PILGRIM's PROGRESS a Thesis Presented to The
    THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ALLEGORICAL CHRISTIAN TO REPRESENT BUNYAN’S LIFE IN THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Program in English Language Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) in English Language Studies by Baja Tigor Hasudungan Pasaribu 06. 6332. 014 SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY 2010 Dedicated to My dear mother, Hartini and brother, Oka, v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would acknowledge my supervisor Dr. B.B. Dwijadmoko, M.A. for his supervision. Thank you, Pak Dwi for being so patient, encouraging and supportive. I also thank Mike for his help with my study/thesis. I am grateful for the trust that God has given me to undertake a Masters degree under His financial support. I particularly want to thank mum and bro for the prayers, supports, and encouragements. You have been the best parent and brother God has given me. 8 February 2010 Baja Tigor Hasudungan Pasaribu vi ABSTRACT Baja Tigor Hasudungan Pasaribu. (2009). THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ALLEGORICAL CHRISTIAN TO REPRESENT BUNYAN’S LIFE IN THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University. This thesis talks about The Pilgrim’s Progress, one of the most widely read books in English literature. It is a fiction-prose allegory relating the journey and adventures of Christian, a man who flees the City of Destruction and sets out for the Celestial City. Bunyan uses The Pilgrim’s Progress as a narrative strategy to express his own attitude toward his society and government in his life time. Bunyan personified his own life experiences and faith through the main character of the text (Christian), and bad characters in the text personified all the figure who had suppressed or persecuted him in real life.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Universalism in the Novels of Denise Giardina William Jolliff George Fox University, [email protected]
    Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Department of English Department of English 2016 The ideW Reach of Salvation: Christian Universalism in the Novels of Denise Giardina William Jolliff George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/eng_fac Recommended Citation Jolliff, William, "The ideW Reach of Salvation: Christian Universalism in the Novels of Denise Giardina" (2016). Faculty Publications - Department of English. 28. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/eng_fac/28 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Department of English by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Wide Reach of Salvation: Christian Universalism in the Novels of Denise Giardina William Jolliff It would be careless and reductive to refer to Denise Giardina as a regionalist; she is simply someone paying attention to her life. - W. Dale Brown Maybe Denise Giardina has written too well about Appalachia. Storming Heaven (1987) and The Unquiet Earth (1992), the two novels set in the West Virginia coalfields of the author's childhood, have received serious critical attention: but with few exceptions, her other novels have been ignored by academic commentators. Had Giardina written with such perfect and articulate craft about Dublin or London or New York, critics might be slower to think of her simply as a regionalist or even a writer of place. And I suspect she would have less trouble being heard when she says, as she has many times, "As much as I'm an Appalachian writer, I get called a political writer, but the label that is most appropriate for my writing is theological writing" (Douglass 34).
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas R.R. Cobb and the Law of Negro Slavery Paul Finkelman University of Tulsa College of Law
    Roger Williams University Law Review Volume 5 | Issue 1 Article 4 Fall 1999 Thomas R.R. Cobb and the Law of Negro Slavery Paul Finkelman University of Tulsa College of Law Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR Recommended Citation Finkelman, Paul (1999) "Thomas R.R. Cobb and the Law of Negro Slavery," Roger Williams University Law Review: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 4. Available at: http://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR/vol5/iss1/4 This Symposia is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Roger Williams University Law Review by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thomas R.R. Cobb and the Law of Negro Slavery Paul Finkelman* From the Revolution until the Civil War Southern intellectu- als, professionals, and politicians developed and articulated elabo- rate defenses of slavery. The most significant proslavery legal scholar was Thomas R.R. Cobb, a Georgia attorney, law professor and one-time reporter for the Georgia Supreme Court. His trea- tise, An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America,' profoundly illustrates the way antebellum Southern lawyers and judges used their learning and talents to support slavery. Proslavery advocates, such as Cobb, emphatically insisted on the justice and morality-the essential rightness-of slavery. Cobb believed that racially based slavery was a prerequisite for a truly "republican equality"2 because only in such a system were all whites equal in status, regardless of their wealth, property, or sta- tion in life.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating a Commonplace Book (CPB) (20% of the Final Grade)
    Creating a Commonplace Book (CPB) (20% of the Final Grade) This semester, you will keep your own commonplace book (CPB). What is a commonplace book? (Figure 1) (FIGURE 1: DR. KENNEDY’S COMMONPLACE BOOK. (TYPED TRANSCRIPTION CAN BE ACCESSED HERE.)) 1 During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, one of the most important tools of a reader or writer was a commonplace book. Peter Beal, leading expert on English manuscript studies, defines a commonplace book as “a manuscript book in which quotations or passages from reading matter, precepts, proverbs and aphorisms, useful rhetorical figures or exemplary phrasing, words and ideas, or other notes and memoranda are entered for ready reference under general subject headings.” For example, here is a short poem copied into a Commonplace Book that we may file under the heading of “Friendship” (Figure 2): * A TRUE FRIEND MUST LIKE A PRIVY BE TO EASE HIS FRIEND AT HIS NECESSITY. A TRUE FRIEND MUST LIKE A CHIMNEY BE HOTTEST IN WINTER OF ADVERSITY. (FIGURE 2: AN (UNATTRIBUTED) EPIGRAM WRITTEN IN THE COMMONPLACE BOOK OF MATTHEW DAY (1574-1661, MAYOR OF WINDSOR) [MANUSCRIPT], CA. 1650. (FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY, V.A.160, 4||5). The Renaissance commonplace book allowed readers to actively engage with their texts, choosing and curating passages that spoke to them, and to transcribe those passages into journals under organized headings. Early modern readers marked up their texts, underlining favorite lines, writing marginal notes (such as attribution tags), using asterisks and manicules (these cute little pointing hand signs (☞)) to point out favorite passages, cross-listing page numbers, crossing out text they did not like, writing lists, practicing their signature, drawing obscene images, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Church Bulletin Inserts-Year One
    Church Bulletin Inserts-Year One 1 John Brown 32 Samuel Mills 2 John Adams 33 Jon Zundal 3 Walter Judd 34 Simeon Calhoun 4 Jennie Atwater 35 Mary Webb 5 Theodore Parker 36 Mary Ann Bickerdyke 6 Edward Beecher 37 Calvin Coolidge 7 Lloyd Douglas 38 Antoinette Brown 8 Sam Fuller 39 Francis Clark 9 Anne Bradstreet 40 Washington Gladden 10 Tabitha Brown 41 D.L. Moody 11 Zabdiel Boylston 42 David Hale 12 George Atkinson 43 David Livingston 13 Kathy Lee Bates 44 Edward Winslow 14 Lyman Beecher 45 Edward Taylor 15 George Burroughs 46 Harry Butman 16 Asa Turner 47 Martyn Dexter 17 Ray Palmer 48 Horace Bushnell 18 Charles Finney 49 Charles Ray 19 Susanna Winslow 50 Helen Billington 20 Elizabeth Tilley 51 Obidiah Holmes 21 Henry Beecher 52 Jermemiah Evarts 22 William Bradford 53 Leonard Bacon 23 Charles Sheldon 54 Reuben Gaylord 24 David Brainerd 55 Winifred Kiek 25 Constance Mary Coltman 56 John Eliot 26 Increase Mather 27 John Robinson 28 Lyman Abbott 29 Elizabeth Graham 30 Isabella Beecher Hooker 31 Charles Hammond Did you know John Brown… Descended from Puritans, John Brown opposed slavery and aspired to Congregational ministry. Illness derailed divinity studies; instead, he Call To Worship followed his father’s footsteps as a tanner. But he did become a noted abolitionist. His Pennsylvania tannery was a major stop on the L: Redeem the time, O God, before it’s gone and lost Underground Railroad, aiding an estimated 2,500 escaping slaves. C: When hearty pilgrim souls measured the cost Influenced by the 1837 murder of editor Elijah Lovejoy, the 1850 Fugitive L: And made the long voyage with hopes of something new Slave Law, and the 1856 sack of Lawrence, Kansas, Brown embraced C: We come to worship expecting something new! violence to oppose slavery.
    [Show full text]