Freemasonry
Redwood Lodge’s founders. Digital collage — Shai Afsai
Rhode Island History Journal 76:2 (Summer/Fall 2018), pp. 72–86
Thomas Paine, Deism, and the Masonic Fraternity
Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume 2018 (Yardley: Westholme, 2018), pp. 343–354
Thomas Paine’s close associations with famous Freemasons in America, England, and France have not only frequently been taken as evidence that he was a Freemason himself, but have also been seen as explaining his sudden rise to literary and political prominence after arriving in the American colonies from England. His writing of an essay “On the Origin of Free-Masonry” several years before his death has similarly been interpreted as proof that he was a committed member of the fraternity.
However, a close reading of “On the Origin of Free-Masonry” shows that Paine was not a Freemason at the time of its composition and that the essay’s purpose is to attack organized religion as much as to explicate Freemasonry’s beginnings. “On the Origin of Free-Masonry,” which posits a druid origin to the Masonic fraternity, is of a piece with the confrontational religious approach Paine embraced in his later works, where he denounced revealed religion and endorsed deism.
An earlier version of this article is available online:
Thomas Paine, Deism, and the Masonic Fraternity, Journal of the American Revolution, November 7, 2016
Judaism and Freemasonry in Rhode Island
The Online Review of Rhode Island History, October 28, 2017
Freemasonry and Religious Accommodation in Rhode Island
Heredom: The Transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society 23 (2015), pp. 137–170
An earlier article on this subject is available online:
Rhode Island History Journal 71:1 (Winter/Spring 2013), pp. 2–19