Mercy Leroux

Since understandings of religion have evolved over time, we thought we’d clarify a few things about the ways in which it’s thought of or talked about in the Omegaverse series. Despite many modern people trying to make a 1=1 understanding of how beliefs then were equal to beliefs today, that’s really quite a reductive understanding of how various religions featured in the Revolutionary period.

Today, we would call most of the characters involved in these stories some flavor of Christian, even if some of them might be more deist than theist, or even agnostic or atheist. In the times in which the characters lived, though, religion was often a bit more of a communal or inherited thing than a personal belief, and the particular flavor would matter more.

(Which isn’t to say there weren’t other religions practiced in the colonies. The majority populations of the Americas at this time practiced indigenous religions. There was also a sizable Jewish population.)

See, today many Christians are just Christian, with the occasional amendment of whether one is Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox. In the thirteen colonies, and indeed in the British Empire, this was of high importance. In fact, some of these denominations didn’t consider each other truly Christian at all.

Many of the colonies were founded by people fleeing religious persecution back in Europe, such as the Quakers in Pennsylvania and the Puritans in Massachusetts. Religious tolerance also highly varied depending on colony, and the different religious and thus cultural traditions among the colonies presented challenges in uniting under a common cause. (If you’d like to learn about where certain religions were more common in the colonies, Brittanica has a handy map here).

And, of course, no matter which denomination people would be part of, there were varying degrees of practice, which is also reflected in our characters; some are more devout like Josiah, and some are very apathetic or more deistic.

The most common denominations you’ll find referenced in these books are:

Congregationalist – basically Puritanism that had evolved. They were also known for having distinctly Biblical or virtuous names, which proved amusing to those outside these circles.

Anglican – as the official Church of England, it makes sense many colonists would be practicing Anglicans.

Lutheran – directly descended from the teachings of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation.

Quaker – a somewhat mystic Christian movement also referred to as the Society of Friends, and known for their pacifism and opposition to slavery.

Presbyterian – originated in Scotland and England during the English Civil War in the mid-1600s.

Baptist – this movement placed great emphasis on total immersion baptism, and like Quakers, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, originated from English Dissenters.

Catholic – there had been a long history of Protestant/Catholic violence in Europe over the past centuries, and the conflicts simmered in the Americas as well. Catholics actually weren’t allowed into the British military until 1778!

There were also other emerging religious philosophies at the time. Deism is probably the most well-known one: it’s the idea that God is a watchmaker who set the world up to run like a watch, but doesn’t personally intervene. Unitarianism was also started to emerge, and unlike more traditional branches of Christianity, denied the trinity and sometimes the deity of Christ.

You’ll hear many people today claim either that the Founding Fathers were all deists, but they weren’t. You’ll also hear that many of them were evangelical Christians. This is also likewise not true, and many of the people held up as such were distinctly not; for example, John Adams, who is frequently cited as one, was actually more of a Unitarian.

What does it matter? Not a ton, but for our fictional series, we just wanted to note that today’s understandings of religion don’t directly correlate to the 18th century versions.

And sadly, in real life, we also see people trying to appropriate the Founding Fathers to make political points by equating their religious practices to present-day flavors, but while you can sometimes see a through line, it’s somewhat ahistorical to equate them. But we also don’t want to ignore the religious aspect, as it would have been a part of many peoples’ lives in this time period, and indeed was relevant to the politics of the era too… for example, the first Great Awakening occurred ~1730-40, which certainly had an impact on politics and views that went into the Revolution, for better and for worse! And the British Anglican culture differing from various religious practices in the colonies did create some culture shock moments, some of which were rather amusing and will be discussed later/appear in the books.