What is it about?
There's a distinct focus on order and organization in Scottish Presbyterianism which I think adds something to our understanding of the influence of religion on social life. I draw on my historical work on the practices of the eighteenth century Church of Scotland to suggest four aspects: accountability, examination, ecclesiology (concern with the theory of church organization) and order as a good in its own right.
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Why is it important?
It seems strange that the focus on discipline in the work of Michel Foucault does not consider the influence of the religious polity that most emphasised discipline as a good in its own right. Many accounts simply jump from Foucault's examination of the confessional to aspects on contemporary life, without due consideration to the influence of Roman Catholicism on Foucault. This is to neglect some hints in Foucault's work that it would be of value to examine Protestant practices. This article seeks to remedy that neglect.
Perspectives
I have used archival material to examine practices (as opposed to beliefs) in the eighteenth century Church of Scotland. That examination owed something to both Weber and Foucault, but made me aware that there was something both lacking and misleading in the focus on the confessional. Put simply, a religious body that firmly rejected auricular confession was still marked by an intense focus on order and discipline. Given its later influence on social and cultural life in places like the USA (think of Presbyterians of Scottish descent as the classic WASPs) then this neglect seemed unwarranted. My book examines the practices in more detail, but this article not only draws on that discussion to pull out some implications but also looks at diaries of the faithful in more detail. More work remains to be done on such diaries.
Dr Alistair Mutch
Nottingham Trent University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “Decently and order”: Scotland and Protestant pastoral power, Critical Research on Religion, April 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/2050303216676519.
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