ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s biography from the perspective of his spiritual development as it related to the larger evangelical context of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. Moreover, Coleridge points to an incident in the Biographia that may indicate direct exposure to the John Wesleys’ works. Coleridge’s first Confessio Fidei, which pointed to a Christianity amenable to Evangelicals, was written in 1810, so he may have already had encounters with Evangelicals by that time. Then, from December 1818 to March 1819 Coleridge delivered his series of philosophy lectures, which provided a theoretical foundation for Evangelical Anglicanism as a form of Christianity from which “true religion” could emerge. The general attitude toward dissenting Christians also appeared in the 1830 “On the Articles of Faith Necessary to Christians,” in which Coleridge also reaffirmed a belief in the essentials of Christian belief that echoed the doctrinal commitments of Evangelicals.
