Hutchinsonianism: A counter-enlightenment reform movement

Abstract

The followers of the natural philosopher John Hutchinson developed a religious movement which produced one of the most notable schools of eighteenth-century Anglican thought. This paper describes Hutchinsonianism's position, firstly, in relation to other religious movements of the period. It sites it within a temporally specific spectrum of ecclesiastical positions and also offers a more general description of its character. To be more specific, there is discussion of the nature of the phenomenon of High Churchmanship and evangelicalism in this period and a justification of the use of the term "reform movement." In the latter part of the paper, Hutchinsonianism is placed within the general intellectual currents of its age. In the course of this discussion attention is drawn to previously underemphasized areas of Hutchinsonian interest, notably the history of religion. However, more importantly, this part of the paper uses Hutchinsonianism to discuss and clarify the use of the terms "Enlightenment" and "Counter-Enlightenment" in the study of English intellectual history.