The transatlantic Methodist family: Gender, revolution and evangelicalism in *America and England, c. 1730--1815.

This dissertation examines eighteenth-century Methodism to illustrate how evangelicals created new practices, philosophies and families. This study uses family in its broadest possible terms, as a metaphorical blanket for a community of related people, because Methodists often used familial terms when describing themselves and their relationships with other Methodists. Additionally, it examines nuclear evangelical families, to look at how evangelicals decided to marry, and how they made those decisions within a religious framework. Building on the study of the Atlantic world, this dissertation demonstrates the existence of a shared transatlantic culture of evangelicalism, bound together through print culture, common evangelical language, epistolary networks, leadership hierarchy, and religious practice. This work extensively examines anti-Methodist literature, exploring the dynamic between dissenting and mainstream groups and dissecting the language and debates that volleyed between Methodists and their detractors. Chapter One examines the history of the family and outlines early modern cultural and metaphorical uses of family. Chapter Two examines the history of Methodism, from its inception in England in 1729 through the growing pangs of American Methodism following the American Revolution. Chapter Three traces the family culture of evangelicals and the familial terms of Methodist membership to both the structures and the discourse of Methodism. Through the autobiographical narratives of Methodists, this chapter demonstrates how religious membership dislocated Methodists from their own families. Chapter Four examines anti-Methodist writings to show how eighteenth-century Anglo-American society equated Methodism with sexual deviancy. It includes an analysis of the basis for these accusations within Methodist religious experience, and evangelicals' responses. Finally, Chapter Five examines how Methodists defined certain rules for courtship and marriage, as well as the alternative to marriage, celibacy. While itinerant preachers were strongly advised to remain celibate, this chapter outlines the practice of temporal celibacy and the Methodist practice of finding marriage partners.PhDAmerican historyEuropean historyModern historyPhilosophy, Religion and TheologyReligious historySocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/124720/2/3150246.pd