The Benevolent Deity: Ebenezer Gay and the Rise of Rational Religion in New England, 1696-1787

The years following the Great Awakening in New England saw a great theological struggle between proponents of Calvinism and the champions of Christian liberty, setting the stage for American Unitarianism. The adherents of Christian liberty, who were branded Arminians by their opponents, were contending for the liberty of the mind and the soul to pursue truth and salvation free from prior restraint.

The Arminian movement took shape as a major, quasi—denominational force in New England under t...