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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Primary documents of Noyes during the Putney period, February 27, 2004
The Onedia Community was one of the most controversial of America's communal utopias because historians and sociologists have been fascinated with the system of "complex marriage" established by the eccentric Vermont-born John Humphrey Noyes (everyone in the community was married to everyone else; all men and women were expected to and did have sexual relations). Both Noyes and his critics referred to this practice by the misleading term "free love," which, of course, had a significant meaning in the 1960s. Because he also set up eugenics experiments, called "stirpiculture," Noyes is also seen as being a prototype for the Nazi programs that had a similar aim. Noyes was a genius, but also one of the most controversial figures in the history of American utopias, described as a "Yankee Saint" by his supporters and denounced as a "Vermont Cassanova" by his detractors. The Oneida Community was a product of the great religious revival that swept over America in the years 1830-1834. Noyes and most of his original associates were converts of that revival. In reaction to the confines of Calvinistic piety the "Perfectionists," as they were called, gradually came to the conclusion that salvation from sin, though possible under the conditions of ordinary society, would be better served by the development a reconstructed society. Noyes and the others formed the nucleus of a Community at Putney, Vermont in 1838. "The Religious Experiences of John Humphrey Noyes" recounts the personal experiences which led to the formation of the Putney Community and the experiment in "Bible Communism" which eventually led to the final home of the Perfectionists at Oneida, New York. Originally intended to be a compilation of original documents, George Wallingford Noyes ended up adopting a semi-narrative format for the volume. The opening sections are pretty much a biography of John Humphrey Noyes, with excerpts from college journals and a focus on the early Perfectionist efforts. The key part of the volume are the last chapters, where Noyes asserts his divine commission, wins his first converts, and begins publishing "The Witness." The final chapters provide a concise statement of the doctrine of perfection in Christian history and a general view of Noyes's theological views. It is because these writings cover the period before Oneida and the establishment of the complex marriage system in the community that they can be seen as presenting a clearer view of Noyes's doctrines. Noyes believed that the Second Coming of Christ had already occurred and the human race was therefore now capable of reaching something akin to perfection. However, Noyes did not content that this was true perfect, but rather something closer to the true Christianity of the Bible than what could be found in the world at large. But because Noyes and his followers were forced to flee Putney as a result of being prosecuted for adultery because of the practices of the community, it is hard to get past the complex marriage idea. One of the reasons I tracked down this volume was because it has the letter that was originally published anonymously in "The Battle Axe" in 1837 in which Noyes first articulated his ideas, which were then publicly defended in "The Witness." So this volume, originally published in 1922, contains key primary documents for an understanding of all of Noyes's beliefs and practices during the Putney period.
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