University of Richmond Religion Professor Awarded Two Grants for Study on New England Congregationalism
June 4, 2003
Douglas Winiarski, assistant professor of religion at the University of Richmond, has been awarded two grants for his research project "Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Popular Religion and the Travail of New England Congregationalism, 1690-1770."
The American Council of Learned Studies has awarded Winiarski a $22,500 grant for 2003-04, and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture has awarded him a $45,000 grant for 2004-05. The institute is located in Williamsburg and sponsored jointly by the College of William & Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The grants will enable Winiarski to write a book that will challenge current scholarly ideas that view the 18th century as a time of slow change with mere spurts of religious revival. Instead, he claims that the 1700s were a catalyst for a change to a more modern atmosphere of religious thought and action.
Winiarski's research is based on hundreds of unpublished manuscripts. Additionally, he scoured more than 900 handwritten spiritual autobiographies that religious candidates penned before they were allowed admission to early New England churches.