HOPKINS, SAMUEL
(17 September 1721, Waterbury, CT-20 December 1803, Newport, RI). Education: B.A., Yale College, 1741; studied theology with Jonathan Edwards*, 1741-42. Career: Minister, Housatonic (now Great Barrington), MA, 1743-69; minister, First Congregational Church, Newport, RI, 1770-1803.
One of the strengths of Congregationalism lies in the fact that its formative ideas came not only from the metropolitan centers of the faith, but also from unlikely pastors in small parishes. The denomination's emphasis on the autonomy and integrity of individual congregations may have contributed to this democracy of leadership. At any rate, Samuel Hopkins is a good example of a minister who became one of the great leaders of the church without the distinction of serving a major parish. He began his ministry in the remote town of Housatonic (now Great Barrington) Massachusetts with a congregation numbering five. He was eventually dismissed and moved on to Newport, Rhode Island, where his parish was completely disrupted for three years by the British occupation of the town. Even after the British left, his congregation remained small. Hopkins contributed to his problems by failing to become an effective preacher. William Ellery Channing, who greatly admired Hopkins's thought, admitted that his pulpit manner was terrible: "He was the very ideal of bad delivery," Channing said.
And yet Hopkins's influence was great, both as a theologian and a social reformer. He studied with Jonathan Edwards* and the two men spent many hours discussing theology when Edwards moved to Stockbridge, near Housatonic.-Hopkins published several of Edwards's posthumous works and developed his own and Edwards's ideas into a systematic theology, known as "Hopkinsianism." In many respects his ideas were a reworking of traditional Calvinism, especially in his emphasis on the sovereignty of God.
He is best remembered for one idea that is notably harsh, and another that is especially charitable. Because God is perfect, he argued, one must be contented even to be condemned to hell, if God so desired. This willing-to-be-damned philosophy was generally rejected by Congregationalists in a later, more secular America. A more encouraging view of the deity was contained in Hopkins's belief that the principle of "benevolence" drove individuals and the world toward greater happiness. Hopkins lived that creed, even to the detriment of his own security, for he decided that slavery was inconsistent with the Christian ideal of benevolence. Newport was a center for the slave trade, yet Hopkins became the first Congregational minister to write abolitionist tracts, and he corresponded with antislavery leaders in the United States and England.
In such ways, Hopkins was a man drawn in opposite directions by the tides of history, attracted to the strictest ideas of traditional Calvinism, while contributing to reform movements that would influence the country long after his death.
Bibliography
A: Sin ... an Advantage to the Universe (Boston, 1759); The Life and Character of the Late Rev. Jonathan Edwards (1765); The True State and Character of the Unregenerate (New Haven, 1769); An Inquiry into the Nature of True Holiness (Newport, 1773); A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of the Africans (Norwich, cr, 1776); A Discourse upon the Slave Trade (Providence, 1793); A Treatise on the Millennium (Boston, 1793; New York, 1972); System of Doctrines Contained in Divine Revelation, Explained and Defended, 2 vols. (Boston, 1793).
B: AAP I, 428-35; DAB 9, 217-18; NCAB 7, 154-55; SH 5, 363-64; Stephen West, Slcetches of the Life of the Late Samuel Hopkins (Hartford, 1805); Edwards A. Park, Memoir of the Life and Character of Samuel Hoplcins (Boston, 1854); Joseph Conforti, Samuel Hoplcins and the New Divinity Movement: Calvinism, the Congregational Ministry, and Reform in New England between the Great Awalcenings (Grand Rapids, Mich, 1981); Joseph Conforti, "Samuel Hopkins and the Prerevolutionary Antislavery Movement," Rhode Island History, 38 (1979), 39-49.
One of the strengths of Congregationalism lies in the fact that its formative ideas came not only from the metropolitan centers of the faith, but also from unlikely pastors in small parishes. The denomination's emphasis on the autonomy and integrity of individual congregations may have contributed to this democracy of leadership. At any rate, Samuel Hopkins is a good example of a minister who became one of the great leaders of the church without the distinction of serving a major parish. He began his ministry in the remote town of Housatonic (now Great Barrington) Massachusetts with a congregation numbering five. He was eventually dismissed and moved on to Newport, Rhode Island, where his parish was completely disrupted for three years by the British occupation of the town. Even after the British left, his congregation remained small. Hopkins contributed to his problems by failing to become an effective preacher. William Ellery Channing, who greatly admired Hopkins's thought, admitted that his pulpit manner was terrible: "He was the very ideal of bad delivery," Channing said.
And yet Hopkins's influence was great, both as a theologian and a social reformer. He studied with Jonathan Edwards* and the two men spent many hours discussing theology when Edwards moved to Stockbridge, near Housatonic.-Hopkins published several of Edwards's posthumous works and developed his own and Edwards's ideas into a systematic theology, known as "Hopkinsianism." In many respects his ideas were a reworking of traditional Calvinism, especially in his emphasis on the sovereignty of God.
He is best remembered for one idea that is notably harsh, and another that is especially charitable. Because God is perfect, he argued, one must be contented even to be condemned to hell, if God so desired. This willing-to-be-damned philosophy was generally rejected by Congregationalists in a later, more secular America. A more encouraging view of the deity was contained in Hopkins's belief that the principle of "benevolence" drove individuals and the world toward greater happiness. Hopkins lived that creed, even to the detriment of his own security, for he decided that slavery was inconsistent with the Christian ideal of benevolence. Newport was a center for the slave trade, yet Hopkins became the first Congregational minister to write abolitionist tracts, and he corresponded with antislavery leaders in the United States and England.
In such ways, Hopkins was a man drawn in opposite directions by the tides of history, attracted to the strictest ideas of traditional Calvinism, while contributing to reform movements that would influence the country long after his death.
Bibliography
A: Sin ... an Advantage to the Universe (Boston, 1759); The Life and Character of the Late Rev. Jonathan Edwards (1765); The True State and Character of the Unregenerate (New Haven, 1769); An Inquiry into the Nature of True Holiness (Newport, 1773); A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of the Africans (Norwich, cr, 1776); A Discourse upon the Slave Trade (Providence, 1793); A Treatise on the Millennium (Boston, 1793; New York, 1972); System of Doctrines Contained in Divine Revelation, Explained and Defended, 2 vols. (Boston, 1793).
B: AAP I, 428-35; DAB 9, 217-18; NCAB 7, 154-55; SH 5, 363-64; Stephen West, Slcetches of the Life of the Late Samuel Hopkins (Hartford, 1805); Edwards A. Park, Memoir of the Life and Character of Samuel Hoplcins (Boston, 1854); Joseph Conforti, Samuel Hoplcins and the New Divinity Movement: Calvinism, the Congregational Ministry, and Reform in New England between the Great Awalcenings (Grand Rapids, Mich, 1981); Joseph Conforti, "Samuel Hopkins and the Prerevolutionary Antislavery Movement," Rhode Island History, 38 (1979), 39-49.