Pursuing happiness: Cultural discourse and popular religion in Anglican Virginia, 1700--1770

This dissertation elucidates an understanding of human happiness that pervaded eighteenth-century Anglo-American culture. Described here as the "ecclesiology of happiness," this transatlantic cultural discourse married the self-interested desire for human contentment with the altruism of virtuous behavior. Originating in religious culture, the concept of a "pursuit of virtuous happiness" became the defining characteristic of Anglicanism in the years following the English Civil War. Eager to distance themselves from decades of religious conflict, ecumenically-minded Anglican clerics conflated Christianity with virtuous behavior rather than contentious doctrine. Espoused most notably by John Tillotson, Greater Britain's most popular preacher, the ecclesiology of happiness pragmatically promised temporal happiness---in the form of a contented mind, a full purse, and a long life---to those who practiced Christian virtues. Practical godliness, Tillotson argued in his highly influential sermons, not only preserved political and ecclesiastical peace, it brought earthly happiness to parochial lives.; As a transatlantic cultural discourse, the ecclesiology of happiness possessed great cultural currency in colonial Virginia. John Tillotson's works were staples on Virginia bookshelves and his pragmatic conflation of virtue and happiness directly influenced the colony's Anglican ministers. Through an examination of surviving Virginia sermons, this dissertation contends that the concept of virtuous happiness was regularly and repeatedly preached, and, thus comprised a central component of Anglican oral culture. Importantly, the oral articulation of the ecclesiology of happiness in crowded churches throughout the colony ensured its widespread dissemination to both literate and illiterate populations. Infusing transatlantic homiletics, the ecclesiology of happiness also characterized verse and prose in secular almanacs, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and other forms of "cheap print." Preached on Sunday, concepts of virtuous happiness were also readily sold in Monday's marketplace of popular literature.; Demonstrating the symbiosis of sacred, secular, oral and written cultures in the common articulation of a transatlantic ecclesiology of happiness, this dissertation demonstrates the cultural relevance of the "pursuit of happiness" long before Thomas Jefferson made it an inalienable human right. In uncovering an aspect of colonial commonsense that permeated eighteenth-century culture, it contributes to a fuller understanding of everyday life and culture in an Atlantic World.