RELIGION
THOMAS JEFFERSON AND POLITICAL PREACHING: TWO CASE STUDIES
OF FREE RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION IN THE AMERICAN PULPIT
McKINLEY S. LUNDY, JR.
Thesis under the direction of Professor Kathleen Flake
This work is concerned chiefly with Thomas Jeffersons understanding of and reaction to the phenomenon of political preaching. The longstanding tradition of occasional preaching in New England, along with the viciously partisan Presidential election of 1800, both serve to contextualize Jeffersons ideas in light of American clerical tradition and personal political struggle. Though he explicitly argues against religious politicking in an 1815 unsent letter to Congressman Peter Wendover, Jeffersons largely ignored relationship with the Episcopal minister Charles Clay clearly provides evidence that for some period of time, he not only approved of politically charged religious rhetoric, but actively sought to utilize it as a tool of influencing public opinion. Using his relationship with Clay and the 1800 election as historical points of departure, I argue that one can better see Jeffersons 1815 reproach of political preaching more as a deeply personal political response to the mode of his public critics attacks rather than as a calculated discourse on the limits free speech and free exercise.
Approved______________________________________________ Date____________
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11222005-122027 |
| Date | 08 December 2005 |
| Creators | Lundy, Jr., McKinley Snipes |
| Contributors | Lisa Bressman, Kathleen Flake |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11222005-122027/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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