A Disease of the Soul? Melancholy, Methodism and Madmen.

The Fear of the practice of religious melancholy in 18th Century in England.

Abstract

In the 18th century England melancholy was a topic of an intense and sometimes uncompromising debate. The Methodist movement's positive understanding of melancholy as a feeling related to the care for the soul was intensely criticised. Melancholy could be interpreted in both medical and religious terms, and the critiques of Methodism claimed that they were melancholic madmen and enthusiast with a fanatic understanding of religion. In this article, the question is asked why melancholy became such an irreconcilable issue between Methodists and their critiques. By taking an approach to feelings as expressing power relations and by using the concept of emotions structures and emotion practice the Methodism's practice of melancholy is analysed as well as what reactions this evoked in critics of the Methodist movement. It is argued that among the Methodists, melancholy was constituted as an emotional structure that was part of an emotional practice that was to show who was a true or false Christian. Thus, melancholy served as an emotional distinction to the Anglican Church. That this was not considered an innocent way of practicing religion is shown by the analysis of the reaction to the Methodists' practice of melancholy. I argue that the Methodist practice of melancholy was criticised because it was perceived as potentially subversive and thus dangerous to the political order.