TRIUMPH OF THE LAITY : THE MIGRATION OF REVIVALISM FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND TO THE MIDDLE COLONIES, 1625-1760.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

WESTERKAMP, MARILYN JEANNE.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania.

Subjects (All):

United States--History.

United States.

History.

0337.

Local Subjects:

0337.

Physical Description:

441 pages

Contained In:

Dissertation Abstracts International 46-01A.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

In this dissertation I explore the causes of the Great Awakening that swept the middle colonies during the 1730s, 1740s, and 1750s. Focusing upon the Awakening as a religious movement, I postulate that its primary characteristic was ritualistic revivalism that existed apart from ideological and social structures. I seek the cultural origins of this revivalism among those most affected by the Awakening in the middle colonies, the Scottish and Irish protestants, primarily Presbyterians. Therefore, the research scope spans three geographic areas, Northern Ireland, the Scottish Lowlands, and the middle colonies, over 135 years. I have used church records, sermons, polemical pamphlets, personal papers, and government records to piece together the religious experience of the Scots-Irish.

During the 1620s Ulster experienced a great revival that quickly spread to western Scotland, beginning a "Scots-Irish" revivalism tradition. While the official church in both countries during this century was forced frequently to conform itself to the prelatic, sectarian, or Presbyterian structure, according to the persuasions in power, the people of those two areas remained loyal to a religious tradition traceable back to the 1560 Scottish Reformation, a religion that included Calvinism, rigid moral discipline, and revivalism.

Economic exigencies led many Irish protestants to migrate to the colonies during the eighteenth century. In both old and new settlements cultural upheaval threatened, and people fought for their traditions. In Ireland this was symbolized by the battle over subscription to the Westminster Confession, where subscription equalled orthodoxy, which implied acceptance of revivalist rituals. In Scotland, many adhered to the Secessionists, schismatics seeking a return to the days of Knox; others enjoyed and prospered from Whitefield's tour. Both were responding to the ascendance of the moderate, nonevangelical party in the Scottish church. In the middle colonies the clergy were exposed to a Puritan Calvinism by the New England clerics already resident among them. This theology provided a justification from revivalism that the Irish and Scottish clergy did not have. Together a demanding and enthusiastic people and a gifted clergy could produce a movement of the size and scope of the Great Awakening.

Notes:

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-01, Section: A, page: 0248.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1984.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175.

Access Restriction:

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