P8: American Scriptures: Transformations of Scriptural Authority and the Canon in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century American Protestantism

Based on two case studies, this project examines a basic tension in early American (primarily Reformed) Protestantism: On the one hand, it was characterized by an intense biblical piety with inner-canonical forms of exegesis that affirmed the authority of the recognized Holy Scriptures. On the other hand, already around 1700, there were strongly spiritualistic tendencies that not only emphasized the necessity of a Spirit-filled exegesis, but also implied the possibility of immediate illumination and new revelations. From these tendencies grew “targumizing” practices of interpretation that pushed across the boundaries of the canon. During the 19th century, new religious movements developed that then openly claimed to be expanding and completing the Bible. The project as a whole thus focuses on the reciprocities between interpreting and appropriating existing sacralized texts and the production of new ones.

The first case study examines two eighteenth-century New England theologians, Cotton Mather (1693-1728) und Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), who are situated in the transitional period between Puritanism and early evangelicalism. Both exhibit a simultaneous trend toward a more “scientific” exegesis and toward its deepened spirtualization, with the latter being informed by mystical-esoteric traditions. The goal of this sub-project is to better understand the ways in which Mather and Edwards were navigating between these two poles of a rationalistic, academic and inner-canonical hermeneutic and an “enthusiastic” devotional creativity. Of particular interest is how exegesis bleeds into prophetic discourse in interpreting Revelation and the debates over an eschatological restitution of the gifts of the Spirit.

The second case study looks at “inspired” lay exegetes and self-declared prophets in the context of Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism, and Transcendentalism during the 19th century, such as Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910), Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), and Cora Hatch (1840-1923). In different ways, their texts all combine spiritualistic interpretations of Scripture with prophetic-visionary claims. The subproject aims to examine how exactly these texts understood their relation to the canonical Bible and Christianity, whose deeper “spiritual” meaning they were purportedly revealing. How did these figures conceptualize revelation and inspiration? And what kind of authority did they ascribe to Swedenborg and his writings? Special attention will be paid to the practices and processes through which these new religious movements were sacralizing particular writings.