Popular and elite understandings of miracles in enlightened England

This dissertation investigates the issue of miracles in the Anglophone world of much of the long eighteenth century and contributes to our understanding of how people of various social backgrounds understood and debated the meaning of these phenomena. It seeks to establish that the common assumption of this period as one of thorough secularization is incorrect.;Chapter 1 reviews the issues involved in the study of miracles, popular-elite religion, secularization, and Enlightenment in England. Chapter 2 lays out the political, social, intellectual, and religious context in which discussions about the supernatural occurred in the late seventeenth century. Chapter 3 deals with a number of reported seventeenth-century miracles from both inside and outside the Anglican Church.;Chapter 4 extends the discussion of the supernatural through the first half of the eighteenth century. The literature of the period typically was not hostile toward the idea of the miraculous, although many Protestant leaders believed in the cessation of miracles beyond the New Testament occurrences. The most vicious attacks on miracles at the time were from the Deists. However, Orthodox apologists ably defended foundational Christian tenets against deistic assaults. Reported miracles continued to retain an important place among the populace.;Chapter 5 focuses on the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. A close examination of primary sources, especially John Wesley's Journal, uncovers many supernatural accounts of physical healings, exorcisms, prophecies, and "falling down." These phenomena, which were recorded well into the latter half of the eighteenth century, present a notable contrast to the cessationism taught by some church leaders and reveal that eighteenth-century popular religious practice often transcended prescribed religion.;Chapter 6 explores the classic attack on miracles by David Hume and presents various responses to both Humean and deistic arguments. It also looks at discussions about the supernatural during the latter years of the eighteenth century in England. Apparently, belief in miracles survived the storm of the preceding decades.;This dissertation affirms the vitality of religious belief and practice in Enlightened England and concludes that thorough secularization and de-Christianization did not occur during the period under consideration. The most that can be claimed is partial secularization.