Friday, August 8, 2025

It is the 8th of August 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

One of the historical “transitions” that has long interested me is that between the Reformations of the 16th century and the Revolutions of the 18th of specific interest to me is the Protestant Reformation and its links to the American Revolution- and more specifically, how the “Enlightenment” played into it all.

In just the second ever Weekend Edition, I crammed my semester outline for one of my more popular classes into a look at the movement that followed the Reformation and could either advance its goals or circumvent them.

One of the less heralded but important characters comes to us in the person of Francis Hutchinson- the Scots-Irish dissenter and one-time Presbyterian minister whose ideas have long been seen as a bridge between the era of the Reformation and the American Revolution.  

Francis Hutchinson was born on this, the 8th of August in 1694 in County Down, Ireland- his father and grandfather were ministers and part of the larger story of Protestants shipped to Ireland to combat the largely Catholic population. Hutchinson, however, was unable to attend the local school as his family were dissenters (that is, they were Presbyterians and not in the Church of Ireland- under the auspices of the Church of England).

He went to the University of Glasgow in 1711 to study philosophy, theology, and the classics. He graduated in 1716 and was licensed in the Irish Presbyterian Church as a preacher. However, there was concern that he was one of the “new lights” (think, “progressive” or “liberal”) and maybe even a deist (he wasn’t, but the idea of God as a blind watchmaker was increasingly popular).

He was never called to a church, and so in 1719, he moved back to Ireland and opened his own “dissenting academy” like the one he was trained in as a boy. He would later become famous as a professor at his alma mater, Glasgow- he would become a teacher and mentor to the famous Adam Smith and would influence, to some extent, the thought of both David Hume and Jeremy Bentham. He would also become somewhat scandalous for being among the first professors at Glasgow to lecture in English instead of Latin. BUT his influence on the American Revolution and his fame as a philosopher come largely from the period before he became a professor. From his dissenting academy in Ireland, he produced anonymous works including 1725’s "Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue” and 1726’s “Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections”. What was so radical about these was the idea of something innate in humans- what he would call our “moral sense”.

What was shocking about this was that he claimed this was ‘natural’ to humankind and not something that needed to be initially taught. The idea that God has “built certain things into the system” could look like deism or later Enlightenment thought, but Hutchinson was a convinced Christian and minister. The fact that he could dialogue with the likes of Smith and Hume shows the strength of his ideas amongst Christians and non-Christians alike.

His most enduring ideas are those of a “moral sense”- this is one of the “other” senses beyond the standard five that Hutchinson argued was innate and gave us the sense of what was beautiful and virtuous. Another was his particular language about human rights, which he called “unalienable”- a phrase certainly familiar today. It’s worth noting that he used the idea of “unalienable” rights to argue against slavery… that part got lost traveling across the Atlantic.

The other enduring idea was of the ideal human estate on this side of heaven- borrowing from Christian theology and pagan philosophy, he developed his idea of a “pursuit of happiness” as our greatest good. And, any idea of a pursuit of such a thing should be calculated such as to bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people- a kind of “utilitarian” idea developed by later philosophers.

The Scots-Irish philosopher is familiar to historians of the American Revolution and Scottish Enlightenment but we remember him as that, and as an ordained (if not controversial) Presbyterian minister. Francis Hutchinson died in Glasgow in 1746- born on this day in 1694 he was 51 years old.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 50 (and something of a “natural theology”). 

The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
    speaks and summons the earth

    from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

From Zion, perfect in beauty,

    God shines forth.

Our God comes

    and will not be silent;


a fire devours before him,

    and around him a tempest rages.

He summons the heavens above,

    and the earth, that he may judge his people:

“Gather to me this consecrated people,

    who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,

    for he is a God of justice

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 8th of August 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man shocked to learn that dogs in France must be named according to the year of their birth…Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man reminding you that while pronunciation is a matter of custom and preference, neither Glasgow nor Moscow should rhyme with “cow”- 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.