2013 Annual Newell D. Goff Lecture at the Rhode Island Historical Society
110 Benevolent Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02906
Thursday, the 9th of May, 6:30pm
FAITH & FORM IN ROGER WILLIAMS’ “A KEY INTO THE LANGUAGE OF AMERICA” AND JOHN ELLIOT’S INDIAN LIBRARY
Sarah Rivett, Ph.D.
Free
The Aldrich House
110 Benevolent Street, Providence, Rhode Island
In 1643, Roger Williams’s A Key into the Language of America not only produced the most comprehensive English guide to the Narragansett language, but also introduced a lexical system for discovering evidence of God in nature. In his Indian Grammar (1666) and print production of an ‘Indian Library’ of Massachusetts texts, John Eliot adopted Williams’s system to his own theological designs. These works illustrate the theological and philosophical perspectives that each missionary brought to the project of translation.
Prof. Rivett will demonstrate how Williams adapts mystical language theories to America, making a claim about the inherent capacity of not only the land and its inhabitants to produce wonders of nature but also of Indian languages to shed light on divine truths. While John Eliot built his translation project around this model, texts such as the Indian Primer, Logic, and Indian Bible, ultimately create an enclosed system of interpretation where the text determines spiritual meaning. Using these documents, Prof. Rivett makes the case that the theological differences between each missionary become apparent through the textual representation of this mid-seventeenth century language encounter and through their respective views on American Indian conversion.
Sarah Rivett is Assistant Professor of English at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2005 and specializes in early American and transatlantic literature and culture. Her first book, The Science of the Soul in Colonial New England (2011) has been awarded the Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History.
Reservations required.
RSVP: programs@rihs.org, or call 401.331.8575 x128.
This program is made possible through the Goff Center for Education and Public Programs and is part of a series of programming receiving major funding support from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
