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Frontier Hopkinsians: New School Theology In East Tennessee 1797-1861, Ronald Russell Ragon

Masters Theses

This thesis seeks to define the role that the theology of New England theologian Samuel Hopkins played in the development of frontier East Tennessee. Early educators Hezekiah Balch and Charles Coffin introduced the work of northern benevolence societies to Tennessee in the early nineteenth century. These societies encouraged the spread of Hopkinsian theology and caused those Presbyterians in East Tennessee who held to New School thought to clash with other Presbyterians in the area who were influenced by popular revivalist efforts. Because of differing theologies, Two Presbyterianisms emerged in East Tennessee before the Civil War and remained until the1980s.