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Full-Text Articles in Intellectual History
God And Reason: An Intellectual Religious Journey Through The Mind Of Thomas Paine, Jason R. Patterson
God And Reason: An Intellectual Religious Journey Through The Mind Of Thomas Paine, Jason R. Patterson
Masters Theses, 2020-current
Thomas Paine was one of the most prolific writers in the Age of Revolutions. His writings can be analyzed from a political, philosophical, humanitarian, or religious point of view. However, it was Paine's use of religious rhetoric that ultimately led to the demise of his character and reputation as a popular actor in the American Revolution. Most historiography on Paine focuses in on one of the mentioned perspectives, leaving out a much larger narrative or arch of Paine's life. This thesis will cover a series of Paine's writings beginning with his first, The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772) …
The Presbyterian Enlightenment: The Confluence Of Evangelical And Enlightenment Thought In British America, Brandon S. Durbin
The Presbyterian Enlightenment: The Confluence Of Evangelical And Enlightenment Thought In British America, Brandon S. Durbin
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
Eighteenth-Century British American Presbyterian ministers incorporated covenantal theology, ideas from the Scottish Enlightenment, and resistance theory in their sermons. The sermons of Presbyterian ministers strongly indicate the intermixing of enlightenment and evangelical ideas. Congregants heard and read these sermons, spreading these ideas to the average colonist. This combination helps explain why American Presbyterians were so apt to resist British rule during the American Revolution. Protestant covenantal theology, derived from Protestant reformers like John Calvin and John Knox, emphasized virtue and duty. This covenant affected both the people and their rulers. When rulers failed to uphold their covenant with God, the …
Folly In The Garden: The Religious Satire Of Erasmus And Voltaire, John M. Beller
Folly In The Garden: The Religious Satire Of Erasmus And Voltaire, John M. Beller
Honors Theses
In his introductory editorial comments on Erasmus' letters, literary critic Robert M. Adams commented that "Like Voltaire, with whom it's commonplace to compare him, Erasmus was a prodigious correspondent." Erasmus and Voltaire shared much more than an affinity for writing letters. A list of their similarities reads much like one of those supposedly eerie lists of coincidences between the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. The dates of their respective births remain uncertain. Both may have been illegitimate during times when ancestry mattered a great deal, and neither was born noble. Both rose above their beginnings by means …