American Scriptures: Transformations of Scriptural Authority and the Canon in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century American Protestantism

基于两个案例研究，本项目考察了早期美国(主要是改革后)新教中的一个基本紧张：一方面，它的特征是强烈的圣经虔诚和内部规范的释经形式，肯定了公认的圣经的权威。另一方面，已经在1700年左右，有强烈的灵性倾向，不仅强调了一个灵性充满注释的必要性，而且暗示了立即启迪和新启示的可能性。从这些倾向中产生了跨越正典界限的“抹黑”解释实践。在19世纪，新的宗教运动发展起来，然后公开声称正在扩大和完善圣经。因此，该项目作为一个整体，侧重于解释和挪用现有的神圣化文本与产生新的文本之间的相互关系。第一个案例研究考察了两位18世纪的新英格兰神学家，科顿·马瑟(1693-1728)和乔纳森·爱德华兹(1703-1758)，他们处于清教主义和早期福音主义之间的过渡时期。两者都显示出一种同时的趋势，朝着更“科学”的注释和深化的精神，后者是由神秘的深奥的传统所告知。这个子项目的目标是更好地理解马瑟和爱德华兹是如何在理性主义的、学术的和内部规范的解释学和“热情的”奉献创造力这两个两极之间导航的。特别令人感兴趣的是，在解释启示录和对圣灵恩赐的末世论恢复的辩论中，注释如何流血进入先知话语。第二个案例研究着眼于19世纪瑞典博尔吉亚主义、灵灵主义和超验主义背景下的“受启发”的世俗训诫和自称先知，如安德鲁·杰克逊·戴维斯(1826-1910)、阿莫斯·布朗森·奥尔科特(1799-1888)和科拉·哈奇(1840-1923)。在不同的方面，他们的经文都结合了对圣经的灵性解释和预言性-幻想性的主张。这个子项目的目的是检查这些文本是如何准确地理解它们与规范的圣经和基督教的关系，据称它们揭示了它们更深层次的“精神”含义。这些人物是如何将启示和灵感概念化的？他们把什么样的权威赋予了斯威登堡和他的著作？将特别注意这些新的宗教运动将某些作品神圣化的做法和过程。

Based on two case studies, this project examines a basic tension in early American (primarily Reformed) Protestantism: On the one hand, it was characterized by an intense biblical piety with inner-canonical forms of exegesis that affirmed the authority of the recognized Holy Scriptures. On the other hand, already around 1700, there were strongly spiritualistic tendencies that not only emphasized the necessity of a Spirit-filled exegesis, but also implied the possibility of immediate illumination and new revelations. From these tendencies grew “targumizing” practices of interpretation that pushed across the boundaries of the canon. During the 19th century, new religious movements developed that then openly claimed to be expanding and completing the Bible. The project as a whole thus focuses on the reciprocities between interpreting and appropriating existing sacralized texts and the production of new ones. The first case study examines two eighteenth-century New England theologians, Cotton Mather (1693-1728) und Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), who are situated in the transitional period between Puritanism and early evangelicalism. Both exhibit a simultaneous trend toward a more “scientific” exegesis and toward its deepened spirtualization, with the latter being informed by mystical-esoteric traditions. The goal of this sub-project is to better understand the ways in which Mather and Edwards were navigating between these two poles of a rationalistic, academic and inner-canonical hermeneutic and an “enthusiastic” devotional creativity. Of particular interest is how exegesis bleeds into prophetic discourse in interpreting Revelation and the debates over an eschatological restitution of the gifts of the Spirit. The second case study looks at “inspired” lay exegetes and self-declared prophets in the context of Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism, and Transcendentalism during the 19th century, such as Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910), Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), and Cora Hatch (1840-1923). In different ways, their texts all combine spiritualistic interpretations of Scripture with prophetic-visionary claims. The subproject aims to examine how exactly these texts understood their relation to the canonical Bible and Christianity, whose deeper “spiritual” meaning they were purportedly revealing. How did these figures conceptualize revelation and inspiration? And what kind of authority did they ascribe to Swedenborg and his writings? Special attention will be paid to the practices and processes through which these new religious movements were sacralizing particular writings.