Daniel Ritchie

William McIlwaine and the 1859 Revival in Ulster: A Study of Anglican and Evangelical Identities

The Evangelical awakening which took place in the province of Ulster during 1859 was one of the most important events in the religious history of the north of Ireland. Although it has received virtually uncritical acceptance by modern Evangelicals in Northern Ireland, few are aware that there was a significant minority of Evangelicals who dissented from offering the movement their wholehearted support. This article examines why one of nineteenth-century Belfasts most controversial Anglican clerics, the Revd William McIlwaine, was very critical of the movement. Not all critics were outright opponents of the revival, however. McIlwaine was one of the revivals moderate critics, who believed that it was partially good. Nevertheless, the awakenings physical manifestations and its impact on theology and church order deeply disturbed him. The article also explains why 1859 was a turning point in McIlwaines ecclesiastical career, which saw him move from Evangelicalism to a moderate High Church position.

Transatlantic Delusions and Pro-slavery Religion: Isaac Nelson's Evangelical Abolitionist Critique of Revivalism in America and Ulster

This article considers the arguments of one evangelical anti-slavery advocate in order to freshly examine the relationship between abolitionism and religious revivalism. Although it has often been thought that evangelicals were wholly supportive of revivals, the Reverend Isaac Nelson rejected the 1857–58 revival in the United States and the 1859 revival in Ulster partly owing to the link between these movements and pro-slavery religion. Nelson was no insignificant figure in Irish abolitionism, as his earlier efforts to promote emancipation through the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society, and in opposition to compromise in the Free Church of Scotland and at the Evangelical Alliance, received the approbation of various high-profile American abolitionists. Unlike other opponents of revivals, Nelson was not attacking them from a perspective which was heterodox or anti-evangelical. Hence his critique of revivalism is highly significant from both an evangelical and an abolitionist point of view. The article surveys Nelsons assessment of the link between revivalism and pro-slavery religion in America, before considering his specific complaints against the revival which occurred in 1857–58 and its Ulster counterpart the following year.

Confessional Calvinism and Evangelical Assurance: Isaac Nelson, Ulster Revivalism and the Assurance Controversy in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, c.1859–1867

The issue of the relationship between Calvinism and assurance is one that has vexed historians and theologians alike. David W. Miller, a distinguished historian of religion, once argued that Calvinism and assurance of personal salvation were wholly incompatible. This article seeks to use a biographical case study of one of Ulster Presbyterianisms most significant figures in order to illuminate our understanding of a much wider historiographical debate. The 1859 Revival was supposed to have furthered the cause of evangelicalism, while Isaac Nelsons denomination (the Presbyterian Church in Ireland) was its main beneficiary. Nelson, however, did not believe that the Revival was congenial to the orthodoxy of evangelical Presbyterianism. In particular, he took exception to views of assurance popularized during this movement, which appeared to be more in line with Methodist Arminianism than with Reformed orthodoxy. In the years subsequent to the Revival, debate raged within the Irish Presbyterian Church as to whether or not revivalist notions of assurance were compatible with the Westminster Confession. The anti-revivalist William Dobbin charged the revivalist Robert Crawford with holding heterodox opinions, only for the latter to be acquitted by the General Assembly. Most existing scholarship on the Assurance Controversy has concentrated on the debate between Dobbin and Crawford; this tendency has unhelpfully obscured both important nuances and the wider significance of the debate. By concentrating on the arguments of Nelson, the broader issue of confessional Calvinisms fraught relationship with popular evangelical conceptions of Christian assurance can be understood more clearly.

‘Justice Must Prevail’: The Presbyterian Review and Scottish Views of Slavery, 1831–1848

The Presbyterian Review (1831–48) was one of the most important sources for Evangelical thought within the Church of Scotland before the Disruption of 1843, and for Free Church opinion after the schism. However, its views concerning slavery have yet to be subjected to critical evaluation by historians. Initially, it reflected the radicalism of the Evangelical leader, Andrew Thomson, especially in its demand for the immediate, uncompensated abolition of West Indian slavery. It also used slavery as part of its polemics against High Church Anglicans and Tractarians over the legacy of William Wilberforce and in its disputes with the Scottish Voluntaries. Subsequently, during the ‘Send back the money’ controversy, its position moved closer to the moderation of Thomas Chalmers.

“The stone in the sling”: Frederick Douglass and Belfast abolitionism

ABSTRACT Frederick Douglass’s sojourns in Belfast during 1845–1846 coincided with the “Send Back the Money” controversy in the Free Church of Scotland over the receipt of money from and fellowship with slaveholders, the South Carolina minister Thomas Smyth’s exclusion from the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1846, and the aftermath of the debate at the inaugural meeting of the Evangelical Alliance over fellowship with slaveholders. Since Douglass regarded Belfast as the central location of Presbyterian sympathy for the Free Church outside of Scotland, he believed that the town was crucial in the crusade against the Free Church. The attacks on the Free Church, however, cost the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society considerable support in the long term. Belfast also played a role in the personal development of Douglass. His dispute with his Dublin publisher, Richard Davis Webb, over the ministers’ recommendations to his Narrative constituted evidence of growing maturity. Although William Lloyd Garrison united with Douglass in Belfast to denounce the Evangelical Alliance, this essay argues that Douglass displayed evidence of independence from strict Garrisonianism.

The second coming of Paisley: militant fundamentalism and Ulster politics

proper contextual respect and awareness. While there is perhaps too much focus on the constant disagreements between the two governments on security issues at the expense of other positions taken, it is also understandable considering this work is primarily a focus on newly released archival information and, as such, the direction of the work has to follow the focus of this material. Ultimately, Template for Peace provides an excellent background and information on how the British and Irish governments, as well as the various political parties, tried to find a solution to a significantly difficult matter in extremely difficult times. While McDaid shows how fraught this process was at that time, he also demonstrates how, ultimately, this period would provide lessons and guidance for the peace process in the future.

War, religion and anti-slavery ideology: Isaac Nelson's radical abolitionist examination of the American civil war†

Isaac Nelsons response to the civil war represented the fruit of twenty years’ reflection on the issues of slavery and emancipation. Perhaps surprisingly, he did not support the Federal governments efforts to restore the Union, even after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Nelsons analysis of the struggle helpfully illuminates the complexity of radical abolitionist responses to the civil war, while it also serves to correct hasty generalizations concerning British and Irish evangelical support for the Federal government. Thus, by means of a biographical case study of Ulster Presbyterianisms most zealous abolitionist, a wide number of thematic issues can be freshly examined.

The emergence of a Presbyterian evangelical: a religious and social history of Isaac Nelson's pastorate at First Comber Presbyterian Church, 1838–42

The Revd Isaac Nelson was one of the most controversial figures in nineteenth-century Ulster Presbyterianism, who achieved transatlantic recognition for his involvement with anti-slavery and later became notorious for his advocacy of Irish Home Rule. Owing to his opposition to the 1859 revival, Nelson has been castigated by both fundamentalists and moderate evangelicals as the enemy of vital religion. This view has been disseminated in popular mythologies of the Ulster awakening, especially in the works of Ian Paisley and John T. Carson. An objective examination of Nelsons public career, however, does not support this conclusion. This essay seeks to substantiate the claim that Nelson was an evangelical by considering his early experience as minister of First Comber Presbyterian Church. By means of a micro-history case study, it also usefully illuminates our understanding as to how the dominance of evangelicalism within Ulster Presbyterianism was experienced at a local level. Accordingly, the essay also considers Nelsons role in disputes with Episcopalians and Unitarians during this early part of his career as well as his early involvement in ecclesiastical politics.