Cutmore, Martyn R. J. (2019) Puritan affective culture: emotional identities and the publications of Samuel Clarke (1599-1682). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

On Black Bartholomew's Day 1662, the Presbyterian Samuel Clarke was one of over two thousand ministers and teachers ejected from their positions by the Restoration government. From the outside, puritans in general, and Presbyterians in particular, were regarded as divisive and censorious. Their dissent was characterised as emanating from zealotry and unreasonable passion that placed them beyond the bounds of a moderate middle way. But for those who counted themselves as godly, intense emotional experience was the essence of rationality and an essential part of their piety.

Historians have debated the emotional impact of Calvinist theology and how feeling was central to religious experience. They have exhaustively scrutinised the place of puritanism more generally. However, the role of affect as articulated in public discourse, and the dynamics of emotion in shaping the interface between individual and collective identity has been neglected. Yet, feeling was a fundamental component of politico-religious identities that reflected cultural habituations and determined the nature of the interaction between those of different persuasions.

This thesis proposes that a concept of affective culture helps to locate Clarke's Presbyterianism within these multifarious identities as they developed in the mid-seventeenth century. It draws upon concepts and methodologies from the field of emotions history to explore the relationship between cultures, published text and affect. In his published anthologies Samuel Clarke presented patterns of affect, mobilising a construction of unruly passions and rational affections to underpin his purpose of representing his confessional community as an orthodoxy at the centre of the English Church. This account begins with a macro view that establishes the place of Clarke's work in the affective context of mid-seventeenth-century politico-religious conflict. It goes on to develop an analysis of how Clarke fashioned a template of pious emotion, before considering how affective culture shaped personal and collective identities.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion D History General and Old World > D History (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Puritans, Presbyterianism, Calvinists -- Theology
Official Date:	February 2019
Dates:	Date Event February 2019 Published
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Knights, Mark
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	vi, 307 leaves: illustrations
Language:	eng

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