In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, a group of English dissenters coalesced around a set of theological principles that emphasized the rational analysis of the natural world and the Bible, which led them to question many core beliefs of Christianity held by their contemporaries, whether members of the Church of England or the larger body of fellow Protestant nonconformists who had separated or been dismissed from the established church in the seventeenth century. As Valerie Smith observes in this detailed analysis of the emergence of rational dissenting beliefs, Anglican High Churchmen and Calvinist Orthodox Dissenters turned strongly against the ideas that bound this loose coalition. The Birmingham riot of 1791 is the best known violent reaction but there were other incidents that heightened tensions. This hostile atmosphere served as a crucible for its advocates to explore and espouse the theological ideas that formed the basis of their distinctive identity and laid the groundwork for the formal creation of a Unitarian denomination in the early nineteenth century.
The historiography of Rational Dissent has generally focused on its two most important luminaries, Richard Price and Joseph Priestley, whose voluminous writings and activities, Smith contends, has overshadowed the evolution and spread of the theological tenets held by its rank-and-file believers, lay men and women who also shaped and promoted these beliefs through their tracts, lectures, and correspondence, and through their organization of “unitarian” congregations, schools, literary societies, and philanthropic organizations in cities such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cambridge, and Exeter, but also in towns and small villages across England. By examining writings pertaining to religion, philosophy, and law gathered in ECCO, a database of eighteenth-century texts, Smith has identified hundreds of individuals who either subscribed to or penned sermons and essays that contributed to the refinement and elucidation of doctrinal positions and defended them against attacks from the movement's critics. She traces networks of correspondence between followers and organizers and stresses the importance of marriage and kinship in strengthening Rational Dissenting identity. Although its members have traditionally been associated with the educated and affluent, the author has recovered and given voice to overlooked groups of working-class adherents seeking instruction. One of the major accomplishments of this study is to reveal how these relationships were formed and sustained. This piecing together of those connections from the evidence in the ECCO database and other sources appears in a lengthy appendix described as “a Biographical Register of Rational Dissenters.” Smith maintains that this broad prosopographical approach provides a much more nuanced understanding of who and where these people were and highlights the theological diversity of those whom she has categorized as Rational Dissenters.
In ten concise chapters, Smith explores the theological issues that defined Rational Dissent. The second chapter summarizes the perceptions and allegations of those who feared Rational Dissenters, who were often chided for their audacity in believing that human intellect could know the ways of divine revelation. The author then turns to the core issues that set this group apart from the beliefs held by members of the Church of England and Orthodox Dissenters. One of the most profound ruptures was over the divinity of Christ. As Smith notes, for orthodox Christians, “the doctrine of the Trinity was fundamental and non-negotiable” (54). Rational Dissenters rejected it outright but were divided over the nature and role of Christ. Those described as Arians believed that Jesus was the son of God, but entirely distinct from and subordinate to God the Father (15). A more radical anti-Trinitarian view was held by Socinians, who asserted the total humanity of Christ and denied his heavenly preexistence. Christ was a great teacher inspired by God, but no more.
Rational Dissenters, like many Protestant fundamentalists, read their Bibles scrupulously in an effort to discover the theological marrow of an Apostolic church uncorrupted before the joining of church to state in late antiquity. In their interpretation of scripture, they found no evidence of Calvinist teachings on predestination, or High Church doctrine concerning original sin and its atonement through Christ's crucifixion, and had strong doubts about eternal punishment. They believed that God alone was divine and Christ was a teacher endowed by God's gifts. By rejecting original sin, they envisaged the ineluctable progress of all humanity. They saw it as “a gradual process of enlightenment” (99). In an effort to foster religious liberty, they condemned creeds, set forms of worship and governance, and civic restrictions based on adherence to Anglican articles of faith under which all dissenters suffered through the early nineteenth century. The liberal causes often expressed by Rational Dissenters were rooted in their theology.
Rational Dissenters in Late Eighteenth-Century England grew out of Valerie Smith's dissertation research. Sadly, Dr. Smith died before she could revise it. Fortunately, her advisor, G. M. Ditchfield, recognized its value to those who study early modern English dissent and worked with her brother, David Hopkins, to edit the manuscript for publication. It is a welcomed tribute to her scholarship.
