The Texture of Awakening: Marginalia, Pulpit Notes, and Thomas Prince’s Christian History

Held at the New York Public Library, Thomas Prince’s personal copy of The Christian History permits insight into the 1740s revivalist moment by way of the material text. Present in this unique version of the New England periodical reporting the evangelical turn, his manuscript comments operate on at least two levels. First, they witness the practice of pulpit notes: Prince discusses how the laity submitted handwritten paper scraps, with prayers and testimony, all in reaction to recent preaching by Whitefield, Tennant, and Colman that moved listeners. Second, the annotations position Prince as recasting the published print of the periodical itself, retelling its Christian history once again through the narrative ordering of pulpit note reportage. With three pages of commentary, the extensive coverage of lay enthusiasm and ministerial behavior disclose the labor behind Prince’s moderate stance. In this sense, the artifact reveals the understudied textual phenomenon of pulpit notes while elaborating the politics of moderation felt by ministerial leaders. Furthermore, this textual ambit helps us name the fervor of revivalism’s attentional habits and circulatory uptake, foregoing the abstractions of an evangelical public sphere for the lived experience of lay seeking.