Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T18:49:45.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Applying the Vagueness of Language: Poetic Strategies and Campmeeting Piety in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Steven D. Cooley
Steven D. Cooley
Affiliation:
Mr. Cooley is visiting assistant professor of history at the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Methodist studies of the last four decades have insisted that Methodism be seen as a distinctive intellectual tradition with its own integrity. These studies have corrected the excesses of an earlier experiential interpretation. Although some may still characterize Wesley's Christianity as “almost totally devoid of intellectual content,” the subjects of Wesley, of Methodism, and of the American Holiness Movement can now no longer be reduced to merely an unreflective warm-hearted piety. Current studies have especially highlighted several distinct Wesleyan theological developments. These include the displacement of election and predestination by a religious assurance from the witness of the spirit, the tension between salvation by holy living and salvation by faith alone, an emphasis on vital Christian experience in theological reflection, and especially the development of a Protestant understanding of Christian perfection or holiness. As Henry Rack states, Wesley “softened the hard edges of Calvinism” with an Arminian accent and moved the center of Protestantism so that justification became “the door into the pilgrimage of holiness” rather than the Lutheran cradle or the Calvinist promise. Wesley's prominence in Jaroslav Pelikan's history of Christian doctrine indicates the growing acceptance of this Methodist intellectual history.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , December 1994 , pp. 570 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Johnson, Paul, A History of Christianity (New York, 1976), p. 365.Google Scholar

2. Chiles, Robert S., Theological Transition in American Methodism: 1790–1935 (New York, 1965);Google ScholarOutler, Albert C., John Wesley (New York, 1964);Google ScholarPeters, John L., Christian Perfection and American Methodism (New York, 1956);Google ScholarLangford, Thomas, Practical Divinity: Theology in the Wesleyan Tradition (Nashville, 1983);Google ScholarDayton, Donald, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1987);Google ScholarRack, Henry D., Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism (Philadelphia, 1989), p. 460;Google Scholar and Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Christian Tradition, vol. 5, Christian Doctrine and Modern Culture, Since 1700 (Chicago, 1989).Google Scholar

3. Lindbeck, George, The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age (Philadelphia, 1984);Google ScholarTracy, David, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism (New York, 1983);Google ScholarTracy, , Plurality and Ambiguity: Hermeneutics, Religion, Hope (New York, 1987);Google ScholarMcFague, Sallie, Speaking in Parables: A Study in Metaphor and Theology (Philadelphia, 1975);Google ScholarMcFague, , Models of God in Religious Language (Philadelphia, 1982).Google Scholar See also Wilson-Kastner, Patricia, Imagery for Preaching (Minneapolis, 1989);Google Scholar and Wood, Laurence W., Pentecostal Grace (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1980).Google Scholar

4. Some sources for this use of “poetic” are Aristotle's Poetics;Google ScholarCassirer, Ernst, An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture (New Haven, 1944);Google ScholarFrye, Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton, 1957);Google ScholarHayakawa, S. I., Language in Action 3rd ed. (New York, 1941);Google ScholarHeller, Erich, The Disinherited Mind (New York, 1975), pp. 263–300;Google ScholarLanger, Susan K., Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art (New York, 1942);Google ScholarLeavis, F. R., ed., Mill on Bentham and Coleridge (Cambridge, U.K., 1950);Google ScholarLewalski, Barbara Kiefer, Protestant Poetics and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Lyric (Princeton, 1979);Google ScholarLewis, C. S., “At the Fringe of Language,” Studies in Words (Cambridge, 1960);Google ScholarLewis, , “The Language of Religion,” Christian Reflections, ed. Hooper, Walter (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1967);Google ScholarMartz, Louis, The Poetry of Meditation (New Haven, 1962);Google ScholarRichards, I. A., Poetries and Sciences, 3rd ed. (New York, 1970);Google ScholarRichards, I. A., Principles in Literary Criticism (New York, 1926);Google ScholarStevens, Wallace, The Necessary Angel (New York, 1942);Google ScholarWilliams, Raymond, Culture and Society: 1780–1950 (New York, [1958], 1983). My use of the word “poetic” is also much influenced by the history of religions, particularly the work of Mircea Eliade.Google Scholar

5. Henry, G. W., Trials and Triumphs in the Life of G. W. Henry, 2nd ed. (Oneida, N.Y., 1861), pp. 215, 321–323.Google Scholar

6. Henry, G. W., Shouting in All Ages of the Church (Oneida, N.Y., 1859), pp. 387–388.Google Scholar

7. There is a flourishing literature on the American campmeeting, which includes Conklin, Paul K., Cane Ridge: America's Pentecost (Madison, Wis., 1990);Google ScholarCleveland, Catherine C., The Great Revival in the West, 1797–1805 (Chicago, 1916);Google ScholarBruce, Dickson Jr, And They All Sang Hallelujah (Knoxville, 1974);Google ScholarJohnson, Charles A., The Frontier Camp Meeting: Religion's Harvest Time (Dallas, 1955);Google Scholar and Boles, John B., The Great Revival, 1787–1805: The Origins of the Southern Evangelical Mind (Lexington, Ky., 1972).Google Scholar Note especially the essay and extensive bibliography of Brown, Kenneth O., Holy Ground: A Study of the American Camp Meeting (New York, 1992).Google Scholar Studies of the mid-nineteenth century campmeeting include Dieter, Melvin, The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century (Metuchen, N.J., 1980);Google ScholarJones, Charles E., Perfectionist Persuasion: The Holiness Movement in American Methodism, 1867–1936 (Metuchen, N.J., 1974);Google ScholarParker, Charles A., “The Camp Meeting on the Frontier and the Methodist Religious Resort in the East—Before 1900,” Methodist History 18 (04 1980): 179–192;Google ScholarWeiss, Ellen, City in the Woods: The Life and Design of an American Camp Meeting on Martha's Vineyard (New York, 1987).Google Scholar

8. The relationship of Methodism and the Romantic Movement is a common theme. See Benson, Louis F., The English Hymn (London, 1915), pp. 247–255;Google ScholarDavie, Donald, A Gathered Church (New York, 1978), pp. 25–28, 49–54;Google ScholarGill, F. G., The Romantic Movement and Methodism (London, 1937);Google ScholarShepherd, T. B., Methodism and Literature of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1940);Google ScholarBrantley, Richard E., Wordsworth's Natural Methodism (New Haven, 1975).Google ScholarFor Wesley's doctrine of the witness of the Spirit, see Outler, Albert, ed., John Wesley (New York, 1964), pp. 209–220.Google ScholarAlso Sugden, Edward, ed., John Wesley's Fifty-three Sermons (Nashville, [1923], 1983), pp. 139–166.Google ScholarFor the centrality of these doctrines in a popular American Methodist theological work, see Binney, Amos, The Theological Compend (New York, 1856), pp. 42–46, 82–85.Google Scholar

9. Wilson, George W., Methodist Theology vs. Methodist Theologians (Cincinnati, 1904), pp. 79–80, 91.Google Scholar

10. Finney, Charles G., Lectures on Revivals of Religion, 2nd ed. (Oberlin, Ohio, 1868);Google Scholarand McLoughlin, William G. Jr, Modem Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham (New York, 1959), pp. 65–121.Google Scholar

11. Simpson, Matthew, Lectures on Preaching (New York, 1879), pp. 24, 28, 85–86, 91–92, 140, 145;Google Scholar and Clark, Robert D., The Life of Matthew Simpson (New York, 1956), pp. 300–302.Google Scholar

12. McLean, A. and Eaton, J. W., eds., Penuel; or Face to Face with God (New York, 1869), pp. 217–218.Google Scholar

13. Kroeber, A. L. and Kluckhohn, Clyde, Culture, A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (New York, 1952);Google Scholarand Williams, Raymond, Culture and Society: 1780–1950 (New York, 1958), pp. xv–xviii, 40–48, 110–129.Google Scholar

14. Bowne, Bordon Parker, Studies in Christianity (Boston, 1909), pp. 197–198, 239, 262–264;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and McConnell, Francis John, Bordon Parker Bowne: His Life and His Philosophy (New York, 1929).Google Scholar

15. For instance, compare book lists from the 1900 and 1924 editions of Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church.Google Scholar

16. Wilson, G. W., Methodist Theologians vs. Methodist Theology, pp. 71–72.Google Scholar

17. Watson, G. D., Coals of Fire (Boston, 1886), pp. 130–131.Google Scholar

18. For discussion of the Canaan metaphor, see Jones, Charles E., Perfectionist Persuasion, pp. 35–46.Google ScholarSee also Cooley, Steven D., “The Possibilities of Grace: Poetic Discourse and Reflection in Methodist/Holiness Revivalism” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1991), pp. 107–139.Google Scholar

19. Hughes, George, Days of Power in the Forest Temple (New York, 1988), p. 219.Google ScholarPomeroy, B., Visions From Modern Mounts: Namely, Vineland, Manheim, Round Lake, Hamilton, Cantor, with Other Selections (Albany, NY, 1871), p. 122.Google ScholarMcLean, and Eaton, , eds., Penuel, pp. 299, 316.Google Scholar

20. Henry, G. W., Trials and Triumphs, pp. 176–185. The campmeeting experience of heaven can be understood in terms of Victor Turner's category of liminality. Campmeeting “pandemonium” served to break up the structure of the old order as prelude to establishing a new community. In this way the campmeeting experience of heaven undoubtedly contributed to Henry's development of radical abolitionist and feminist positions.Google Scholar

21. The campmeeting cosmology appears most fully in Mead, A. P., Manna in the Wilderness; or, The Grove and Its Altar (Philadelphia, 1860), pp. 353–355.Google ScholarMead's sources included George Gilfillan and Timothy Dwight. Discussions of the classical cosmology occur in Lewis, C. S., The Discarded Image: An Introduction into Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Cambridge, U.K., 1964);Google ScholarTillyard, E. M., The Elizabethan World Picture (London, 1943);Google Scholar and Lovejoy, Arthur O., The Great Chain of Being (Cambridge, Mass., 1936 and 1964), esp. pp. 99–143.Google Scholar

22. Gorham, B. W., Choral Echoes (Boston, 1854);Google Scholarand Camp Meeting Manual (Boston, 1864).Google ScholarThe Methodist representation of heaven in the campmeeting suggests a formal parallel with the medieval cathedrals of Europe which also sought to mystically present an image of heaven.Google ScholarSee von Simson, Otto, The Gothic Cathedral: Origins of Gothic Architecture and the Medieval Concept of Order (Princeton, 1962), pp. 8–11, 227–231.Google ScholarSee also McDannell, Colleen and Lang, Bernhard, Heaven: A History (New York, 1988), pp. 78–80.Google Scholar

23. Hughes, , Days of Power in the Forest Temple, p. 67.Google Scholar

24. For one extended account, see Mead, , Manna in the Wilderness, pp. 409–414. This procession was led by B. W. Gorham and by the respected Methodist theologian, George Peck.Google Scholar

25. For instance, compare the following: Weiss, , City in the Woods, pp. xi–xii, 30–38, 70–75;Google Scholarand Mead, , Manna in the Wilderness, pp. 353–355, 363–362.Google Scholar

26. Hughes, George, The Beloved Physician; Walter C. Palmer, M.D. (New York, 1884), p. 285.Google Scholar

27. Martz, , The Poetry of Meditation, pp. 1–175;Google ScholarLewalski, , Protestant Poetics;Google ScholarHambrick-Stowe, Charles, The Practice of Piety (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1982).Google Scholar

28. This contrasts with the Moody revivals which used a passive past tense structure pervaded with infinitives. A comparison of these verb structures reveals two distinct religious strategies within Victorian revivalism.Google ScholarSizer, Sandra, Gospel Hymns and Social Religion: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Revivalism (Philadelphia, 1978).Google Scholar

29. Rogers to Miss Brown of Newcastle, Staffordshire, 15 November 1778, as published in Summers, ed., Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers (Nashville, 1854), pp. 160–161.Google Scholar

30. Hughes, , Days of Power in the Forest Temple, pp. 102, 394.Google Scholar

31. For examples, see Jones, William, From Elim to Carmel: Aspects of Christian Doctrine and Experience (Boston, 1895);Google ScholarTuttle, A. H., Egypt to Canaan; or, Lectures on the Spiritual Meanings of the Exodus (New York, 1912);Google ScholarKnapp, Martin Wells, Out of Egypt Into Canaan; or, Lessons in Spiritual Geography (Cincinnati, 1888), pp. 88, 130, 142;Google Scholar and McClung, T. M., Can We Certainly Know the Truth of Scripture Doctrine? (Kansas City, Mo., n.d.).Google ScholarA similar non-Methodist text is March, Daniel, Night Scenes of the Bible (Philadelphia, 1869).Google Scholar

32. Henry, , Shouting in All Ages of the Church. This work received favorable reviews from leading Methodist revivalists B. W. Gorham and A. P. Mead, as well as Free Methodist B. T. Roberts. Small Methodist sectarian groups continued the work in print well into the twentieth century.Google Scholar

33. Advocate of Christian Holiness 3 (08, 1872): 28; 5 (November 1872): 109; 4 (October 1874): 78–79; 6 (October 1875): 116; 7 (October 1876): 292.Google Scholar

34. Lewalski, , Protestant Poetics, pp. 111–136;Google ScholarBercovitch, Sacvan, ed., Typology and Early American Literature (Boston, 1972);Google ScholarFairbairn, Patrick, The Typology of Scripture; or, the Doctrine of Types (Edinburgh, 1855).Google ScholarAyars, J. E., The People's Handbook to the Bible (Cincinnati, 1883), p. 96;Google ScholarTuttle, A. H., Egypt to Canaan; or, Lectures on the Spiritual Meanings of the Exodus (New York, 1912), pp. 7–11;Google ScholarMunger, C., “The Great Debate on Holiness,” Advocate of Christian Holiness 6 (10 1875): 76–77;Google Scholar and Munger, C., “The History of the Holiness Movement in the Church,” in McDonald, , ed., The Double Cure (Boston, 1894), pp. 352–370.Google Scholar

35. Lewalski, , Protestant Poetics, pp. 179–188.Google Scholar For nineteenth-century reflections on emblem symbolism, see Hamilton, James, Emblems from Eden (London, 1867), pp. v, 33–38;Google Scholar and Stock, Sarah G., Windows; or, Gospel Lights for Gospel Subjects; Suggestions for Addresses and Lessons on Scripture Emblems (New York, n.d.).Google ScholarFor Methodist reflections on emblem symbolism, see Lowrey, Asbury, The Possibilities of Grace (New York, 1884), pp. 119–137;Google ScholarWatson, G. D., Our Own God (Cincinnati, 1904), pp. 71–77;Google ScholarWatson, , Coals of Fire, pp. 94–111;Google ScholarCarradine, B., The Second Blessing in Symbol, 2nd ed. (Columbia, S.C., 1894), p. 152.Google Scholar

36. For nineteenth-century reprints of Spencer, John's Things New and Old (1658) and Robert Cawdray's A Treasure of Similes (1600), see The National Union Catalogue Pre-1956 Imprints. Barbara Lewalski discusses Cawdray's importance to the metaphysical poets in Protestant Poetics, pp. 83, 223, 289, 446 n.52.Google Scholar

37. Foster, Elon, ed., New Cyclopedia of Prose Illustrations, Adapted to Christian Teaching: Embracing Mythology, Analogies, Legend, Parables, Emblems, Metaphors, Similes, Allegories, Proverbs; Classic, Historic, and Religious Anecdotes, Etc., first series (New York, 1870); second series (New York, 1877);Google ScholarFoster, , ed., Cyclopedia of Poetry, first series (New York, 1872); second series (1877);Google ScholarFoster, , Index and Catalogue for Any Library (New York, 1889).Google ScholarSee also Foster, , The Dictionary of Illustrations Adapted to Christian Teaching, 3rd ed. (London, 1873). This offered an English adaptation of Foster's American work. Its preface indicates both the popularity of Foster's work in England and its stiff competition for similar English works.Google Scholar See also Jones, William, New Testament Illustrations (Hartford, 1878);Google ScholarBowes, G. S., Scripture Itself the Illustrator (New York, 1872);Google Scholar and Newton, Richard, Cyclopedia of Bible Illustrations (Philadelphia, 1894).Google Scholar

38. Foster, , New Cyclopedia of Illustrations, vol. 1;Google ScholarMcLean, and Eaton, , eds., Penuel, pp. 307–312.Google Scholar

39. Palmer, Phoebe, quoted in Richard Wheatley, The Life and Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer (New York, 1881), pp. 624–25.Google Scholar For discussions of Palmer's altar terminology see Hovet, Theodore, “Phoebe Palmer's Altar Phraseology and the Spiritual Dimension of the Woman's Sphere,” Journal of Religion 63 (07 1983): 264–280;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRaser, Harold, Phoebe Palmer: Her Life and Thought (Lewiston, N.Y., 1987);Google ScholarWhite, Charles Edward, The Beauty of Holiness: Phoebe Palmer as Theologian, Revivalist, Feminist, and Humanitarian (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986);Google ScholarGifford, Carolyn, review of Charles White's The Beauty of Holiness in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 58 (Summer 1990): 319–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40. See Foster's selections through all four volumes under the heading “consecration.” Also notice the line from Francis Quarles, “He is my altar, I His holy place,” in Foster, Cyclopedia of Poetry, entry no. 899.Google Scholar

41. , G. W. S., “Leaf-Lessons,” Advocate of Christian Holiness 3 (02 1873): 173–175.Google Scholar

42. For example, see Zaragoza, Diane Lobody, “Lost in the Ocean of Love: The Spiritual Writings of Catherine Livingston Garrettson,” in Rethinking Methodist History, eds. Richey, Russell E. and Rowe, Kenneth E. (Nashville, 1985), pp. 175–184.Google Scholar

43. McLean, and Eaton, , eds., Penuel, pp. 51–52;Google ScholarFoster, , New Cyclopedia of Illustrations, entry no. 2966.Google Scholar

44. McLean, and Eaton, , eds., Penuel, pp. 269–270;Google Scholar and Harvey, Ellen T. H., Wilderness and Mount; A Poem of Tabernacles (Boston, 1872), pp. 15–16.Google Scholar

45. Bottome, Margaret, “After the Camp,” Advocate of Christian Holiness 3 (12 1872): 125–126;Google Scholarand Hughes, , The Beloved Physician, p. 271.Google Scholar

46. There are both formal and historical connections between these campmeetings and the Heritage U.S.A. theme park of Jim and Tammy Bakker. The imaginative association of heaven with the Bakker's recreational resort, along with its flowing water motif and water slide all seemed to creatively extend this spiritual tradition.Google Scholar Note FitzGerald, Frances, “Reflections (The Bakkers),” in The New Yorker (23 04 1990): 45–87.Google Scholar

47. , L. H. K., “My First Experience at a National Camp-Meeting,” Advocate of Christian Holiness 4 (08 1873): 28.Google Scholar

48. Hatch, Nathan O., “The Puzzle of American Methodism,” Church History 63 (06 1994): 175–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar