Cowper's Olney Hymns: usefulness, locality, and the puritan context

Thesis

This thesis argues that William Cowper’s Olney Hymns should primarily be read within their immediate context and according to the intent of their author: as local texts, written to be used for specific purposes by a specific readership and on specific occasions. In proposing this reading, it runs contrary to scholarly convention, which until now has largely understood the hymns to be effusions of spiritual feeling or psychological torment.

This argument is built upon a necessary redressal of our received understanding of Cowper himself, particularly during his hymn-writing period from 1768-72. Challenging traditional depictions of him as the ‘sick man of Olney’, the introductory section uncovers Cowper’s role as an active resident of his local parish, his work as an informal companion in ministry to John Newton, and his standing as a spiritual and theological authority within the Evangelical community at Olney.

Part One situates Cowper’s hymns within Olney and posits them as sophisticated and intentionally ‘usefull’ texts, emerging from their locale and responding to the needs, tastes, and reading contexts of their first readership: the members of John Newton’s weekly Evangelical prayer meeting. Part Two considers Cowper’s interactions with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century theological thought, and demonstrates that much of the content of his Olney Hymns is either influenced by or explicitly engaging with the work of several Puritan and Evangelical divines.

As a historicist and theological reading of Olney Hymns, this thesis approaches these issues via careful and extended use of sources close to the poet, authored by him, or belonging to his context.

Authors: Newell, A

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Eighteenth century revival; Evangelical revival; Poetry; Theology; William Cowper; Puritanism; Olney; John Newton; Olney Hymns; Evangelicalism; Buckinghamshire; Eighteenth Century; Hymns
• Subjects: Poetry; Eighteenth century verse; William Cowper; Hymns--History and criticism; Calvinism in literature; Evangelicalism; Hymns; Eighteenth century; Evangelical Revival; John Newton; Puritan movements in literature