Devil and Doctor Dwight Contributor(s): Wells, Colin (Author) |
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ISBN: 0807853836 ISBN-13: 9780807853832 Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North C OUR PRICE: $52.25 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2002 Annotation: At the close of the eighteenth century, Timothy Dwight--poet, clergyman, and, later, president of Yale College--waged a literary and intellectual war against the forces of "infidelity." "The Devil and Doctor Dwight" reexamines this episode by focusing on "The Triumph of Infidelity" (1788), the verse satire that launched Dwight's campaign and, Colin Wells argues, the key to recovering the deeper meaning of the threat of infidelity in the early years of the American Republic. The book also features the first modern, annotated edition of this important but long-overlooked poem. Modeled after Alexander Pope's satiric masterpiece, the "Dunciad," Dwight's poem took aim at a number of his contemporaries, but its principal target was Congregationalist Charles Chauncy, author of a controversial treatise asserting "the salvation of all men." To Dwight's mind, a belief in universal salvation issued from the same naive faith in innate human virtue and inevitable progress that governed all forms of Enlightenment thought, political as well as religious. Indeed, in subsequent works he traced with increasing dismay a shift in the idea of universal salvation from a theological doctrine to a political belief and symbol of American national identity. In this light, Dwight's campaign against infidelity must also be seen as an early and prescient critique of the ideological underpinnings of Jeffersonian democracy. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - General - Religion | Theology - History | United States - Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) |
Dewey: 811.2 |
LCCN: 2001054201 |
Series: Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo |
Physical Information: 0.64" H x 6.26" W x 8.64" (0.80 lbs) 272 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 18th Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: At the close of the eighteenth century, Timothy Dwight--poet, clergyman, and, later, president of Yale College--waged a literary and intellectual war against the forces of "infidelity." The Devil and Doctor Dwight reexamines this episode by focusing on The Triumph of Infidelity (1788), the verse satire that launched Dwight's campaign and, Colin Wells argues, the key to recovering the deeper meaning of the threat of infidelity in the early years of the American Republic. The book also features the first modern, annotated edition of this important but long-overlooked poem. Modeled after Alexander Pope's satiric masterpiece, the Dunciad, Dwight's poem took aim at a number of his contemporaries, but its principal target was Congregationalist Charles Chauncy, author of a controversial treatise asserting "the salvation of all men." To Dwight's mind, a belief in universal salvation issued from the same naive faith in innate human virtue and inevitable progress that governed all forms of Enlightenment thought, political as well as religious. Indeed, in subsequent works he traced with increasing dismay a shift in the idea of universal salvation from a theological doctrine to a political belief and symbol of American national identity. In this light, Dwight's campaign against infidelity must also be seen as an early and prescient critique of the ideological underpinnings of Jeffersonian democracy. |
Contributor Bio(s): Wells, Colin: - Colin Wells is associate professor of English at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. |