Tuesday, March 5, 2024

It is the 5th of March 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Today we remember the birth of a periodical that was not only significant for the history of American periodicals, but for Christian periodicals, the Great Awakening and Christian History.

It was on this, the 5th of March in 1743, that the ministers Thomas Prince Sr. and Thomas Prince Jr published the first edition of “Christian History,” the first Christian periodical in the colonies and one that would prove instrumental in the history of American Christianity (and of course, regular and popular accounts of the history of the church under the title “Christian History” is more than a little bit interesting to us here at the Christian History Almanac).

Thomas Prince Sr was one of the leading civic and religious figures in 18th century New England- he was born in Sandwich Massachusetts, the 4th son of Samuel and Mercy he graduated from Harvard in 1707. As a student, he was struck with the paucity of historical materials recording the history of New England and the church in particular. He proposed for his M.A. to travel the world to collect documents related to colonial and church history. In 1711 he would end up in England where he met Deborah Denny, the two would marry and have four daughters and one son, Thomas Prince Jr.

Back in Boston, he was ordained and called to the Old South Church in Boston- a historical church that was founded by John Winthrop and became a center of Revolutionary activity- it is where those who staged the Boston Tea Party would meet.

Prince Sr was involved in various projects attempting to retell the history of New England and the church from his own diary, which was interspersed with news stories of the day and a monumental history of New England that went back to the 6th day of Creation (a later, and more popular account of his went back only so far as 1602).

In the 1630s, the Prince’s interest was piqued by stories of revival, not only in what would become “the Great Awakening” in the colonies but also stories amongst the Pietists on the old continent and the “Holy Fairs” amongst the Scotch-Irish. These latter were revivals amongst Scots Presbyterians who had emigrated to Ireland under direction from the Protestant King who wanted to curb the influence of Irish Catholicism.

By the time Jonathan Edwards “A Faithful Narrative” was circulating around New England, the thing which we would later call “the great Awakening” was underway. This came about, in part, because of the disconnect the colonists felt between their Puritan heritage and a modern population amongst whom church attendance was at an all-time low (there are estimates that only 20-30% of the population were church members- a staggering number even by today’s standards).

As the “Awakening” spread, it also began, in the eyes of some, to get out of hand. Strange stories of ecstatic and erratic behavior threatened the movement, and it was Thomas Prince and his son who sought to take account of the various happenings across North America and Europe.

Thus, it would be their “Christian History” that would seek to verify accounts of revival (and celebrate them) and unite the movement. And it was on this, the 5th of March in 1743 that the first edition of Christian History was published with a subtitle of “Authentick Accounts from Ministers and other creditable Persons of the Revival of Religion in the several Parts of New England.” Along with “Extracts of written Letters" from "New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, South-Carolina, and Georgia" as well as "Extracts of the most remarkable Pieces in the weakly Histories of Religion, and other Accounts, printed both in England and Scotland.”

This periodical would be delivered at a price of 2 shillings per quarter. At the end of each year, you could request a title page and index for the whole year for those wanting to bind them together.

While it meant to seek unity amongst Christians, it also garnered criticism, most vocally from the publisher Thomas Fleet (interestingly, Fleet would be the publisher of various children’s stories told by his mother-in-law Elizabeth Vergoose- the so-called “Mother Goose”).

The periodical only lived for two years, but in those years it collected and spread the stories that would give historians the material needed to establish the “Great Awakening”. Thomas Jr would die at the age of 26 and Thomas Sr. would continue his work at the Old South Church until his death a decade later in 1758 Today we remember their periodical: Christian History and its role in early colonial church history.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and Hebrews 9:

24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 5th of March 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite towns named for food include Sandwich Massachusetts, Cookietown Oklahoma and Hot Coffee Mississippi, He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man with an affinity for Pie Town, New Mexico, and Fries, Virginia- I’m Dan van Voorhis. 

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.