Friday, March 16, 2018

Frazer Updates

Gregg Frazer sent me the following note, that serves as an update:
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I was revisiting some things and realized that I never answered your criticism that I did not include Richard Price in my first book

My standards for who to include in the influences section were: a) for influences on political leaders, I only included those named by the political leaders themselves as their influences; b) for influences on the preachers, I only included Americans – those living in America.

Price was a Welshman/Englishman and was not identified by any of my eight guys as an influence on them.  I do not deny that he was influential, but I kept it to those named by the key Founders.

As with the definition of Christianity that I used [using the definition that the 18th-century American churches used], I didn’t want critics to question whether the people I identified actually influenced the respective political leaders.  You can’t argue with it when they themselves say they were influenced by them.

Incidentally, I have another book at the publisher that is due out in October.  It is a study of the political thought of the Loyalist clergy – i.e. the arguments against the Revolution made by the American clergymen who stayed loyal to Great Britain.  They covered all areas/fields of argument against the Revolution: biblical, legal, theoretical, practical, rational.
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I look forward to the book and hope that it is as impactful as his first. 

1 comment:

Tom Van Dyke said...

Benjamin Rush asked Price to keep his heterodox views on theology quiet to avoid putting a cloud over his other thoughts on politics and education.