Evangelical Belief and Enlightenment Morality in the Australian Temperance Movement

1832-1930

Nicole Starling

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781032403847
• eBook ISBN:
  9781003860761
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This book explores the history of the Australian temperance movement and the ideas that informed it, offering a detailed examination of the beliefs of evangelicals involved. The temperance movement in Australia was large and influential, and played a vital role in shaping the cultural and political life of the emerging nation across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study focuses on the relationship between evangelicalism and 'Moral Enlightenment' ideas within the temperance movement between 1832 and 1930. It considers the complex and varied ways in which they interacted within the thinking of the movement's leaders, enriches discussions regarding religion and secularisation, and offers new insight into the involvement of women. Against the larger horizon of global evangelicalism, the international temperance movement, and the evolution of Australian political culture, the chapters look at the reported words and actions of six key temperance leaders: John Saunders, George Washington Walker, John McEncroe, Alfred Stackhouse, Mary Ann Thomas and Elizabeth Webb Nicholls. The book will be relevant to scholars of religious history and those with an interest in the evangelical Protestant tradition.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Temperance, Improvement and the ‘Moral Enlightenment’ Project
• 1Temperance in Australia, 1832–1930
• 2John Saunders, Temperance, Enlightenment and the Gospel
• 3George Washington Walker, Religion, Irreligion and the Hobart Town Total Abstinence Society
• 4John McEncroe and the Catholic Teetotal Movement
• 5Alfred Stackhouse and the Rise of Church-Based Temperance
• 6Mary Ann Thomas and the Rise of Third-Wave Gospel Temperance
• 7Elizabeth Webb Nicholls, the WCTU and the Secularisation of Salvation
• A ‘New Faith’? Evangelicalism and Enlightenment in the Australian Temperance Movement
• Bibliography
• Index