‘Not the Same God’: Alexander Carson (1776-1844) and the Ulster Trinitarian Controversy

Clary, Ian Hugh

doi:10.2478/perc-2022-0006

Abstract

The impact of the Salters’ Hall Synod went beyond its immediate context in England and spread throughout the British Isles and into Ireland. Ulster Presbyterianism was wracked with debate over confessional subscriptionism and Unitarianism. Two key interlocutors in this debate were the Unitarian theologian William Hamilton Drummond and his orthodox counterpart, Alexander Carson. This essay traces the debate with a particular emphasis on their use of Scottish Common Sense philosophy as a way into or out of heterodox views of the Trinity.

References

Anonymous A [Abernethy (John)] (1846) The Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, edited by J. Newton Brown. Brattleboro, VT: Joseph Steen & Co.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Abernethy J (1751) Religious Obedience Founded on Personal Persuasion. In Scarce and Valuable Tracts and Sermons occasionally Published by the late Reverend and Learned John Abernethy, MA. London.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Barlow RB (1985) The Career of John Abernethy (1680-1740) Father of Non-subscription in Ireland and Defender of Religious Liberty. Harvard Theological Review 78:3-4 (July-October).10.1017/S0017816000012463
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Brazell Jr CF (2007) Reluctant Restorationist: Thomas Campbell’s Trial and Its Role in His Legacy. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Texas at Arlington.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Carson A (1805) Reasons for Separating from the General Synod of Ulster. Belfast: Simms.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Carson A (1826) The Truth of the Gospel Demonstrated from the Character of God Manifested in the Atonement. In a Letter to Mr. Richard Carlile, 2nd edition. Dublin: Richard Moore Tims.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Carson A (1831) A Reply to Dr. Drummond’s Essay on the Doctrine of the Trinity in a Letter to the Author. Dublin: Carson and Knox.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Clary IH (2009) Alexander Carson (1776-1844): Jonathan Edwards of the Nineteenth Century. American Theological Inquiry 2(2): 43-52.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Clary IH (2010) ‘Defending Truth at Every Expense’: Alexander Carson (1776-1844) on Baptism, The Gospel Witness (June).
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Clary IH (2014) ‘Celebrate the Perfections of Our Common Standard’: Alexander Carson (1776-1844) and the Supremacy of Scripture. Journal of Baptist Studies 6: 5-30.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Dixon P (2003) ‘Nice and Hot Disputes’: The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Seventeenth Century. London: T&T Clark.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Douglas J (1884) Biographical Sketch of the Late Dr. Alexander Carson. London: Elliott Stock.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drummond WH (1806) The Battle of Trafalgar, A Heroic Poem. Belfast: J. Smyth and D. Lyons.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drummond WH (1811) The Giants’ Causeway, a Poem. Belfast: Joseph Smyth.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drummond WH (1830) Humanity to Animals, The Christian’s Duty; A Discourse. Cork: King and Ridings.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drummond WH (1830) The Doctrine of the Trinity, Founded Neither on Scripture, Nor on Reason and Common Sense, but on Tradition and the Infallible Church. London: R. Hunter.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drummond WH (1848) The Life of Michael Servetus: The Spanish Physician, Who, for the Alleged Crime of Heresy, Was Entrapped, Imprisoned, and Burned By John Calvin the Reformer, in the City of Geneva, October 27, 1553. London: John Chapman.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Gill J (2012) The Evangelicalism of Alexander Carson. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Holmes AR (2006) The Shaping of Ulster Presbyterian Belief and Practice, 1770-1840. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288656.001.0001
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lim PCH (2012) Mystery Unveiled: The Crisis of the Trinity in Early Modern England. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Lucretius (1808) First Book of T. Lucretius Carus, Of the Nature of Things, trans. William Hamilton Drummond. Edinburgh: Mundell, Doig, and Stevenson.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Luke D (2017) Alexander Carson (1776-1844) and the Case for Congregationalism. Journal of European Baptist Studies 17(2): 20-30.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Sherlock W (1690) A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity, and the Incarnation of the Son of God, Occasioned by the Brief Notes on the Creed of St. Athanasius, and the Brief History of the Unitarians, Or Socinians, and Containing an Answer to Both. London: W. Rogers.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Skoczylas A (2001) Mr. Simson’s Knotty Case: Divinity, Politics, and Due Process in Early Eighteenth-Century Scotland. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Thompson A (2018) The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions: The Long Eighteenth Century c. 1689-c. 1828. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3:23.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Young J (1845) Memoir of Dr. Carson. In Alexander Carson (ed) Baptism in Its Mode and Subjects. Philadelphia, PA: American Baptist Publication Society.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

‘Not the Same God’: Alexander Carson (1776-1844) and the Ulster Trinitarian Controversy

Abstract

Paradigm

My account