Let my people go
16 June 2009 — 16 June 2009
In a public lecture on Tuesday 16th June a University of Leicester professor will argue that since the days of Oliver Cromwell, English and American Protestants have been inspired by visions of divine deliverance from political or racial slavery.
Professor John Coffey, of the School of Historical Studies, commented: “The story of Israel’s Exodus from Egyptian bondage has often inspired radical politics. It is a favourite text of modern liberation theologians, among them the former pastor of Barack Obama, the Rev Dr Jeremiah Wright Jr.
“In my lecture, I will argue that modern appeals to Exodus develop out of an older tradition within English-speaking Protestantism. Oliver Cromwell, William of Orange and George Washington were each hailed as a new Moses long before Martin Luther King declared that he had seen the Promised Land.”
Professor Coffey will explore the various ways in which the idea of divine liberation was used by preachers and activists from John Milton in the Puritan Revolution to Frederick Douglass in antebellum America.
Let My People Go will connect periods and themes that are usually kept apart, and Professor Coffey will suggest fresh perspectives on the historical relationship between religion and politics in Britain and America.
Professor Coffey’s research focuses on religion, politics and ideas in early modern Britain and America. In particular, he has worked on aspects of Puritanism, the English Revolution, and toleration debates.
Now he is extending his focus to examine developments within English-speaking Protestantism in the later 17th and 18th centuries, in particular how Protestants negotiated the tensions between Reformation convictions and Enlightenment values.
His current project is a study of 'How Presbyterians learned to love religious liberty’ which aims to trace the evolution of Presbyterian attitudes to toleration during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. A related project concerns the assassination of Archbishop Sharp of St Andrews by militant Covenanters in 1679, and deals with themes of religious violence and martyrdom.
Let My People Go - Visions of Deliverance from the Puritans to the Abolitionists, the inaugural lecture by Professor John Coffey, takes place on Tuesday 16th June at 5.30pm in Lecture Theatre 1 in the Ken Edwards Building. It is open to the public and free of charge.
