Edward Dorr

Edward Dorr was an eighteenth-century American clergyman whose theological writings engaged with the relationship between civil authority and ecclesiastical institutions during a formative period in American religious thought. His work *The Duty of Civil Rulers to Be Nursing Fathers to the Church of Christ* articulated arguments for governmental support of religious establishments at a time when such positions faced increasing scrutiny from proponents of religious liberty and separation of church and state. Dorr's contributions reflect the transitional theological landscape of the early American republic, wherein traditional Calvinist perspectives on magistracy confronted emerging democratic and disestablishmentarian ideologies.