The contribution of Presbyterian non-subscription to Irish religion and society, 1830-1876

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explore the history of Irish Non-Subscription in the period between the establishment of the Remonstrant Synod in 1830 and the formation of the Free Congregational Union in 1876, with a view to establishing the contribution made by this tradition to Irish religion and life more generally. The events of 1830 and 1876 provide natural starting and finishing points for this study, which traces the development of this liberal form of theology from the time at which it broke away from the increasingly orthodox outlook developing within Irish dissent to the moment at which the most radical thinkers within the Non-Subscribing tradition attempted to establish themselves as a separate organisation. With the exception of the unpublished work of McMillan,1 this period of the history of Irish Non- Subscription has been almost entirely neglected, and this thesis therefore aims to fill a significant gap in the documentation of Irish dissent.

Date of Award	Jul 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Laurence Kirkpatrick (Supervisor) & Andrew Holmes (Supervisor)