The following analyzes the social structure and intellectual change of an American antebellum community. Essentially, this dissertation focuses on the Presbyterian Church in the early 19th century and suggests that by historically examining its structural dynamics historians and social scientists alike can better understand not only American intellectual history but also the sociology of ideological change. Using the Presbyterian Church as a case study, the project hypothesizes how the social organization of early American Presbyterianism influenced not only the Old and New School schism of 1837, but the transformation of American Calvinism in general. It theorizes that the reason Hopkinsian modifications to Westminster Calvinism successfully diffused across the Presbyterian Church was because the construction of the Erie Canal better connected many of the more progressive, innovative, presbyteries initially isolated on the frontier--thus increasing their capacity to influence the denomination as a whole. In essence, when the canal facilitated an enormous amount of material development in western New York during the 1820s, those presbyteries most affected were also the recipients of numerous Congregational immigrants who had adopted many of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins' modifications to Calvinism. Thus, while these presbyteries were transforming economically and intellectually, they were also changing structurally as the canal elevated their standing within the church from "peripheral" status to a more influential and connected "semiperipheral" position which ultimately accelerated the diffusion of Hopkinsian theology and the creation of New School Calvinism.
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