Alison, Francis (1705-1779)

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Francis Alison (1705-1779)

Enlightened minister

Irish Immigrant. The Reverend Dr. Francis Alison arrived in Pennsylvania in 1735 in the company of other oppressed Irish Presbyterians seeking religious and political freedom. He brought with him a deep commitment to the precepts and pedagogy of the Scots-Irish Enlightenment and to the desirability of religious diversity. Alison was born in Leek, in northern Ireland, in 1705, the son of a weaver. He was educated in a private academy, probably in Dublin under the Reverend Francis Hutcheson, the founder of the Scots-Irish Enlightenment. He earned his master of arts degree in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh in 1733 and started divinity studies under Hutcheson at the University of Glasgow. That institution later awarded Alison a doctor of divinity degree, an unprecedented honor for a colonist. He returned to Ireland, was licensed, and sailed for Pennsylvania. He settled in as minister to the New London Church in 1737 and opened an academy that introduced the progressive educational methods and curricula of the Scots-Irish Enlightenment to Americans.

Revivalists. An educated ministry was the main issue among Presbyterians in the Great Awakening, and Alison and his academy occupied center stage. The synod was planning to support a seminary that could prepare ministers to meet the standards required by the Directory. The revivalist faction knew that the New London Academy would be chosen, rather than the “Log College” of William Tennent, which most of them had attended. Alison, “the greatest classical scholar in America,” was already teaching the higher branches of knowledge, which Tennent could not do. Tennent’s son, Gilbert, the leader of the revivalist party, determined to destroy Alison’s academy by convincing laymen to divert their financial support to his father. He opened his attack in 1740 by preaching one of the most influential and severely abusive sermons of the Awakening, “The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry.” It targeted Alison but slapped a string of nasty labels on all educated ministers who dared to oppose the actions of the Log College faction. He announced that all learned clergymen were unconverted and would lead their flocks to damnation. True Christians, he proclaimed, must seek out pastors who had studied under an evangelical like the elder Tennent, channel financial support to the Log College, and choose only its alumni for their ministers. If deprived of support, the New London Academy would wither and nothing would be left for the synod to adopt. The Log College, in contrast, would grow and send out waves of revivalists to dominate the church.

Old Side Leader. When the Presbyterian Synod split in 1741 into the Old Side Synod of Philadelphia and the New Side Synod of New York, Alison assumed the leadership of the Old Side. In their effort to drive Alison from his pulpit, the revivalist faction broke synod rules and intruded on his congregation, hoping to draw away enough members so that the remainder would not be able to afford a minister and Alison would leave. The congregation was so incensed that it lodged a protest against the intruders in the synod of 1741. When the revivalists attempted to hinder consideration of the matter, the moderates issued a protest, which prompted the revivalists to march out of the synod. Alison tried for an immediate reconciliation and then worked for seventeen years to finally effect one in 1758. The Philadelphia Synod did designate the New London Academy as its official seminary in 1743 but opened it to students of all denominations. Alison left in 1752 to become the rector of the new Academy of Philadelphia and vice provost of the College when it was added. He boarded ministerial students at his home and continued the enlightened pedagogy and curricula in his instruction of a generation of moderate ministers. He preached a similar blend of Enlightenment ideas and Calvinism in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he served as a part-time minister until his death in 1779.

Enlightened Calvinist. Alison’s opposition to the excesses of the Great Awakening stemmed from the combination of Calvinism and Enlightenment thought which he taught throughout his life from lectern and pulpit. He read the treatises of “the ingenious Mr. Edwards” and applauded them. However, he did not use the psychology of John Locke and the “new learning” to try to explain the process of conversion as Edwards did. Rather, he adhered to the Calvinist doctrine that humans could never know such divine matters and to Locke’s contention that they could only have probable knowledge of the earthly world. Neither could humans have any control over whether or not they would be saved: that was all predestined. Yet Alison followed the Scots-Irish Enlightenment belief in the existence of a God-given sixth, or moral, sense that guided humans toward virtuous activity that brought pleasure. He also sought its goal of creating a society which would reward such Christian behavior. If humans developed their minds so that they could understand which acts were good and then do them, the conscience or moral sense would reward them with such pleasure that they would always want to follow God’s commands. Soon, acting virtuously would become a habit for all of the society, which was what God had intended in the original creation. Alison’s opposition to the Great Awakening was that its supporters opposed the liberal education that would develop this understanding and seemed to suggest that reading the Bible for God’s directions was not necessary. Instead they encouraged their followers only to follow their emotions in making instantaneous judgments on the spiritual state of others and attack them with an un-Christian ferocity that bred chaos and conflict. This was the exact opposite of the harmonious world that God had intended and which Christians were obligated to re-create. To Edwards, who was concerned with the salvation of individuals, these emotional excesses and unwarranted attacks were simply a temporary and irrelevant spin-off from the revivals which could be ignored; to Alison, whose concern was the development of a Christian society, they were a major obstruction in its creation.