Among the Early Socialists

Beecher, Jonathan

doi:10.1525/california/9780520222977.003.0008

Cited by 1 publication

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Owenite social science enjoys 'religious' legitimation in virtue of its expression of that 'instinctive wish to know'. 50 Those contemporaries who accuse Owenites of seeking to undermine or extinguish religion are wrong; socialists seek to nurture the religious feeling by 'real knowledge, and by real practice'. 51 As 'A Student in Realities' explains in a latter article, this practice involves the establishment of rational schools, founded upon the 'revelations' of geology and physiology, and teaching all positive sciences and useful arts.…”

Section: Religion and Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…49 James Napier Bailey railed against members of the clergy who urge the poor to 'patiently submit' to their fate, who blame social problems upon innate human corruption rather than disordered institutions, and who announce the immutability of the world. 50 And William Hawkes Smith condemned those who seek to encourage among the poor a sort of bastard contentment with their lot -declaring it to be the irreversible decree of the Creator of the universe, that the many should toil for the few; and that, to the mass of mankind, this world must ever be a vale of tears, a state of painful probation, in which they must not hope either to enjoy happiness or to develop the faculties, of which they have, in common with their fellows, received the rudiments. This is a timid and impotent conclusion.…”

Section: Evangelicalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1 December 1842), 386. 50 Bailey, Preliminary Discourse on the Objects, Pleasures and Advantages,26. ways of God, as revealed by the researches of science, or visibly displayed in the mode in which all inferior creatures are fitted to reach and enjoy their proper perfection. 51 The influence of the evangelical mood is reflected in 'M.…”

Section: Evangelicalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, Buchanan argues, the Reformation arose not from a philosophical critique of society's institutions, but from 'Political causes'. 50 Yet, there is still an individual who has been striving to renew the Reformation, to deliver upon its immanent potential:…”

Section: Religious Progress and Social Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These socialists not only claimed legitimation by claiming to realise the immanent promise of the Reformation, but also argued that the Reformation offered an attractive prospective model of social change. They suggested that the Reformation offered a model of change which did not require legislative action or violent unrest, which did not require political changes nor was it administered by 50 Buchanan, 8. 51 Buchanan, 4.…”

Section: Religious Progress and Social Changementioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Early British Socialism and the ‘Religion of the New Moral World’

Lucas¹

2023

Palgrave Studies in Utopianism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This thesis will be concerned with the question of the relationship between Owenite socialists and religion. In this thesis I will seek to untangle and disambiguate existing scholarly accounts of the relationship between Owenite socialism and religion. I will then identify how Owenites offer a re-conception of the nature of 'religion' as advanced through knowledge of the natural and social world, as a prospective source of solidarity which could serve as the unifying bond for communities, and as constituted by ethical conduct. I will demonstrate how these Owenites' critique of contemporary religion was shaped by the particular conditions of the early nineteenth century, conditions which represented a problem to which they offered a solution. I then show how this solution was formed by drawing upon the traditions of natural theology, popular religion, deism, and Rational Dissent. I show how this solution was formed through a sincere and considered reflection upon the problem of religious truth. I will then show the importance of this reimagination of religion to their understanding of socialism. I demonstrate that these Owenites understood their socialism to be, in part, a project of religious reform, as rivalling the Oxford Movement and as a successor to the Reformation. Their religious interests were not an eccentric adornment to their socialism, an outdated residue yet to be shed and encumbering the development of a mature socialism, or merely instrumental to their temporal goals. Instead, their ambitions of religious reform were grounded in the philosophical preoccupations which animated their socialism. They conceived theological falsehoods as an obstacle to the triumph of socialism. And they argued that one should become a socialist, in part, precisely because it created the conditions for the popularisation of religious virtue. I conclude by identifying some implications of the argument of this thesis. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Thesis Structure 1.3 Early Nineteenth-Century Britain 1.4 Three Precursors Chapter 2: The State of the Literature 2.1 Owenism and Religion 2.1.1 Denominational Identities and Doctrinal Commitments 2.1.2 Owenites as Anti-Religious 2.1.3 Owenites as Borrowing from the Christian Tradition 2.1.3.1 Millennialism 2.1.3.2 Owenism as (akin to) a Sect 2.1.3.3 Protestant Communalism 2.1.4 Rational Religion 2.1.4.1 Rational Religion as Morality. 2.1.4.2 Rational Religion and Competition for Authority 2.1.4.3 Rational Religion as Secular Religion 2.2 Owenism as Socialism and Trade UnionismChapter 3: Reconceiving Religion 3.1 Conceptual Innovation 3.2 Religion and Knowledge 3.3 Religion and Solidarity 3.4 Religion and Morality Chapter 4: Owenite Socialism in Religious Context 4.1 Challenges and Deficiencies 4.1.1 Division and Conflict 4.1.2 Church Conservatism 4.1.3 Evangelicalism 4.

show abstract

Section: Religion and Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evangelicalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evangelicalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Religious Progress and Social Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Religious Progress and Social Changementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations