shall endeavour to provide an answer to this question by distinguishing
between the type of Calvinism in New England, and the type found
elsewhere, particularly among the colonial Presbyterians and their allies, and
searching for corresponding ideas in patriot ideology. We ask why New
England, with its precocious development of local democracy, is a less likely
candidate for the role of spiritual home of the Founding than the strongholds
of orthodox Calvinism in the middle colonies and piedmont Virginia.
Religion and Revolution in America
Here we begin by noting that there has long been a tendency to overlook or
even reject the possible influences of Calvinist religion on the ideologies of
the Revolution, and we then seek to demonstrate that those scholars who take
religion seriously have left us a legacy of confusion, partly owing to a
misplaced emphasis on New England, and partly to an inadequate
appreciation of the typologies of Calvinist political ideology. The assumption
that the old puritan colonies of New England would naturally be the principal
source of religious contributions to the radical political ideas of the
Revolutionary Era, both unduly privileges congregationalist views of politics,
and draws attention away from other possible sources of ideas, specifically
the Reformed protestant elites of the middle colonies and Virginia.
This argument arises from consideration of the helplessness of those trying to
explain a link between puritan New England and the Founding, which
enshrines highly disciplined national government within a very low estimate
3
Convention