Experimental Theology in America : Madame Guyon, Fénelon, and Their Readers

by Ward, Patricia A.

• ISBN13: 9781602581975
• ISBN10: 1602581975
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-15
• Publisher: Baylor Univ Pr

Summary

In this study of Madame Guyon and, her defender, Francois de Fénelon, the Archbishop of Cambray, Patricia Ward demonstrates how the ideas of these seventeenth-century Catholics were transmitted into an ongoing tradition of Protestant devotional literature—one that continues to influence American evangelicals and charismatic Christians today. Down a winding (and fascinating) historical path, Ward traces how the lives and writings of these two somewhat obscure Catholic believers in Quietism came to such prominence in American spirituality—offering, in part, a fascinating glance at the role of women in the history of devotional writing.

Author Biography

Patricia A. Ward is Professor Emerita of French and Comparative Literature at Vanderbilt University, where she served as Director of the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies and Chair of the Department of French and Italian. Her previous books include Baudelaire and the Poetics of Modernity, Joseph Joubert and the Critical Tradition, and The Medievalism of Victor Hugo. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
American Popular Piety and Continental Spirituality The Ecumenical Contexts of Nineteenth-Century Holiness Camp Meetings	p. 1
The Reputation of Madame Guyon Personalities, Politics, and Religious Controversy under Louis XIV	p. 11
The Dénouement of the Quietist Drama and Early Intermediaries to Protestant Circles	p. 41
Madame Guyon and the Pietist Mind-Set The Transmission of Quietism to German-Speaking Pennsylvania	p. 59
The Praxis of Piety Quaker and Methodist Mediation of the Works of Fénelon and Madame Guyon	p. 83
Persons of Eminent Piety and Writers of Spiritual Wisdom Fénelon, Madame Guyon, and Their American Readership, 1800-1840	p. 107
From Experimental Religion to Experimental Holiness Contexts of Thomas Upham's Reinterpretation of Madame Guyon, 1840-1860	p. 129
The Turn to Devotional Literature Readers of Fénelon, from Boardman, Stowe, and Bushnell to Twentieth-Century Evangelicals	p. 169
The Legacy of Madame Guyon from 1850 to 2000 From Romantic Sentimentalism to the Charismatic Movement	p. 189
Epilogue	p. 207
Notes	p. 213
Bibliography	p. 255
Index	p. 273
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