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Wilberforce
William Wilberforce, the politician and religious writer, was instrumental in the abolition of slavery in Britain. This free course explores Wilberforce's career and writings and assesses their historical significance. In particular, it examines the contribution that Evangelicalism, the religious tradition to which Wilberforce belonged, made in the transitions between the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Throughout it relates Wilberforce's career and writings to wider social and cultural developments in Britain, with special regard for British reaction to the French Revolution.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- understand the key aspects of William Wilberforce's political career and writings, and have an appreciation of their historical and religious significance
- demonstrate an awareness of the relationship of Evangelicalism to cultural transitions between the Enlightenment and Romanticism
- understand the contribution of religion to cultural, social and political change in Britain in the years after the French Revolution.
First Published: 09/08/2012
Updated: 19/10/2018
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The French Revolution and their wars, I now understand, awakened this country to examining its moral positions with regard to Europe and the world, at least in late 18th century terms. Just a point, too, Evangelism may have shaken the US into rethinking its moral order with regard to slavery, but it took hundreds of years for it to release the slaves from enforced inferiority.
Too much religion in this course, which could have been summed up in a few lines.