Historians of antebellum America have focused on shifting social patterns caused by trends such as democratization and proto-industrialization to explain the rise of new religious communities. These studies, however, have overlooked the ways that the members of these new groups and their visionary leaders understood their goals--in particular their desire to develop new ethical systems from the religious experiences of their founders. My study combines more traditional historical understandings of community formation in antebellum American with methods employed by scholars of religion to provide a clearer picture of the development of unique groups during this era of increased religious diversity. In particular, I argue that scholars must employ both Ann Taves' and William James' methods to study visions and revelations to comprehend how communities addressed the problem of religious experiences' interiority through communal processes of evaluation. To that end, I investigate Elias Hicks, founder of Hicksite Quakerism, and Ellen G. White, the founder of Seventh-day Adventism. My work on Hicks and White focuses on the processes by which their visionary ethics were transmitted into and practiced by their communities over time. Taken together, their ministries demonstrate that the visions of founders typically spoke to ethical issues--broadly and narrowly construed. Both leaders addressed personal, interpersonal, and social ills, and they each presented themselves as the model of obedience to their own visions and revelations in their autobiographies. Yet they faced different issues in convincing people of the truth of their visions for their communities. All Quakers expected their ministers to receive revelations during worship, so Hicks only had to persuade them that following revelation over scripture represented true Quaker orthodoxy. Sabbatarian Adventists, however, came from a wide variety of denominational backgrounds, so White had to persuade some of them not only to accept her teachings, but the existence of visions in the first place. Ultimately, their different views of the trajectory of history influenced their lasting legacies to their communities: eventually Hicks' specific teachings fell out of favor among Hicksites who maintained only his commitment to continuing, progressive revelation. White's teachings, however, remain both influential and hotly contested, because her reputation as prophet is bound up in Adventists' belief in the end of days. / text

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Feb. 29, 2008). Directed by Kathleen Casey; submitted to the School of Education. Embargoed until Dec. 20, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 234-249).

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-42).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-330)

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After a two-decade hiatus, the English church courts were revived by an act of Parliament on 27 July 1661, to resume their traditional task of correcting spiritual and moral misdemeanours. Soon thereafter, parishioners across England's dioceses once more faced admonition, fines, excommunication, and even imprisonment if they failed to conform to the laws of the restored Church of England. Whether they were successful or not in maintaining orthodoxy has been the principal question guiding historians interested in these tribunals, and most have concluded that, at least compared to their antebellum predecessors, the restored church courts constituted little more than a paper tiger, whose censures did little to halt the spread of dissent, partial conformity and immoral behaviour. This thesis will, in part, question such conclusions. Its main purpose, however, is to make a methodological intervention in the study of ecclesiastical court records. Rejecting Geoffrey Elton's assertion that these records represent 'the most strikingly repulsive relics of the past', it argues that a closer, more creative study of the bureaucratic processes maintaining the church courts can considerably enhance not only our understanding of these rather enigmatic tribunals but also of the individuals and communities who interacted with them. Studying those in charge of the courts, the first half of this thesis will explore the considerable friction between the Church's ministry and the salaried bureaucrats and lawyers permanently staffing the courts. This, it argues, has important ramifications for our understanding of early modern office-holding, but it also sheds new light on the theological disposition of the Restoration Church. Using the same sources, coupled with substantial consultation of contemporary polemic, letters and diaries, the fourth and fifth chapters will argue that the sanctions of the restored church courts were often far from the 'empty threat' historians have tended to assume. Excommunication in particular could be profoundly distressing even for such radical dissenters as the Quakers, and this should cause us to reconsider how individuals and communities from various hues of the denominational spectrum related to the established Church.

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