One of the ideas that permeates The Way of Improvement Leads Home is Philip Vickers Fithian’s belief, instilled in him by his mentor, College of New Jersey (Princeton) president John Witherspoon, that God was on the side of the American Revolution.
But Presbyterian patriots were not the only ones who appealed to Providence. Anglicans of the period regularly appealed to Providence in their writings, especially when they managed to survive the persecutions doled out by their Presbyterian neighbors. (I read a letter today where a New Jersey Anglican priest and devout Loyalist was hit repeatedly in the face by the butt a Presbyterian’s horse whip. It was Providence, he explained, that allowed him to survive the beating).
With this in mind, Christianity Today recently ran a 1976 essay by Mark Noll (which seems to be drawn from his Christians in the American Revolution) on Loyalists Christians. It is a nice introduction to the subject. They have also reprinted an essay by Noll entitled, “Was the Revolutionary War Justified?”.
Related to violent Presbyterians and Anglican Loyalists, I have commented today on two books on this subject over at Religion and American history.
It sure is interesting how Loyalist history is (and has been) makeing something of a resurgence–and just like all political history has religion deeply embedded and inscribed into it.