Introduction

John Frederic Oberlin's life was fundamentally guided not by any systematic philosophical ratiocination, but by his deeply religious nature. His religion was more Christocentric than, say, the deism of Rousseau's Savoyard Priest. It was more akin to the "religion of the heart" proclaimed by the German Pietists; to the discipline of the Moravian Brethren with their emphasis on a life of prayer, of devotion to Christ and to the responsibility of the individual. In religion it was the time of Wesley and Methodism, of the Moravian Brethren and the German Pietists, and of Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening. It was, withal, an age of transition: from rationalism and enlightenment to sentimentalism and romanticism. It was the age of revolution. In science and technology it was the age of Watt and the Industrial Revolution, of Linnaeus and Malthus. In exploration it was the time of Humboldt and Cook and the Montgolfiers.