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The Devil and Doctor Dwight : satire & theology in the early American Republic / Colin Wells.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Wells, Colin, 1965- author.
- Series:
- Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Dwight, Timothy, 1752-1817. Triumph of infidelity.
- Dwight, Timothy.
- Chauncy, Charles, 1705-1787--In literature.
- Chauncy, Charles.
- Christianity and literature--United States--History--18th century.
- Christianity and literature.
- Freethinkers--United States--History--18th century.
- Freethinkers.
- Christian poetry, American--History and criticism.
- Christian poetry, American.
- Verse satire, American--History and criticism.
- Verse satire, American.
- Belief and doubt in literature.
- Rationalism in literature.
- Religion in literature.
- Theology in literature.
- Faith in literature.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (267 p.)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- Chapel Hill, [North Carolina] ; London, [England] : Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia by the University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- At the close of the eighteenth century, Timothy Dwight--poet, clergyman, and, later, president of Yale College--waged a literary and intellectual war against the forces of "infidelity." The Devil and Doctor Dwight reexamines this episode by focusing on The Triumph of Infidelity (1788), the verse satire that launched Dwight's campaign and, Colin Wells argues, the key to recovering the deeper meaning of the threat of infidelity in the early years of the American Republic. The book also features the first modern, annotated edition of this important but long-overlooked poem. Modeled after Alexander Pope's satiric masterpiece, the Dunciad, Dwight's poem took aim at a number of his contemporaries, but its principal target was Congregationalist Charles Chauncy, author of a controversial treatise asserting "the salvation of all men." To Dwight's mind, a belief in universal salvation issued from the same naive faith in innate human virtue and inevitable progress that governed all forms of Enlightenment thought, political as well as religious. Indeed, in subsequent works he traced with increasing dismay a shift in the idea of universal salvation from a theological doctrine to a political belief and symbol of American national identity. In this light, Dwight's campaign against infidelity must also be seen as an early and prescient critique of the ideological underpinnings of Jeffersonian democracy.
- Contents:
- Contents; Introduction; CHAPTER 1 An American Dunciad; CHAPTER 2 The Salvation of All Men; CHAPTER 3 Progress and Redemption; CHAPTER 4 The Theology of Man; APPENDIX A: The Triumph of Infidelity; APPENDIX B: Textual Notes to: The Triumph of Infidelity; APPENDIX C: Explanatory Notes to: The Triumph of Infidelity; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; X; Y
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 979-88-908750-2-0
- 979-88-908750-3-7
- 0-8078-3905-1
- 1-4696-0108-7
- OCLC:
- 966924994
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