Night journeys : the power of dreams in transatlantic Quaker culture / Carla Gerona.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gerona, Carla, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dreams--Religious aspects--Society of Friends--History--17th century.

Dreams.

Quakers--History--17th century.

Quakers.

Dreams--Religious aspects--Society of Friends--History--18th century.

Quakers--History--18th century.

History.

Dreams--Religious aspects--Society of Friends.

Physical Description:

x, 290 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2004.

Summary:

Covering a broad time span that begins with the English civil war and ends with the creation of the American republic, Carla Gerona argues that dreams provided Quakers with mental maps to influence the values of their emerging colonial society, usually, though not exclusively, in progressive ways. Night visions, as Quakers often termed their dreams, contributed to social and cultural changes such as the abolition of slavery and religious reform. Gerona argues that dreams helped Quakers define and delineate their mission in America and the world, fostering innovative concepts of individuality, community, nation, and empire.

Contents:

Introduction : "mining dreams"

"The large tree stood for the whole body" : Quakers and dreams

"Taking the king's house at Greenwich" : Quaker dreaming in mid-seventeenth-century England

"Like a horse by the bridle" : mapping a new world in the second half of the seventeenth century

"A large sign on which was written shame" : building discipline in the British colonies during the early eighteenth century

"Hast thou forgotten the shining of the sun?" : a Quaker awakening to problems of empire at midcentury

"The people now jangling in a defiled way" : stresses and separations during the Revolutionary years

"A great effect upon my spirits" : personal and printed dreams during the early Republic

Conclusion : the end of a prophetic tradition?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [255]-280) and index.

ISBN:

0813923107

OCLC:

55044749