ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century Christian radicalism did not emerge from a single event or as a cohesive movement. Strands of Christian radical rhetoric which hearkened back to the seventeenth century had more recent airings in the debates over the American war, voices produced only a few discordant noises in the mid-eighteenth century, The rapid pace of events as well as the range of intellectual currents within the French Revolution created a myriad of strands within what might broadly be described as conservative, moderate or radical responses, each changing dynamically as events unfolded. Conservatives took the initiative in seizing upon the tenets of religion to ‘justify the political order.’ This was scarcely a new tactic in the 1790s. What was distinctive about the campaigns of this period, however, was the unprecedented effort to reach a broad audience. A corollary of the theme of subordination was the exhortation to be content and dutiful in the ‘station in which providence has placed us.’.
