Perfectionist movement - Definition

The Oneida Community in New York state was founded in 18--? by John Humphrey Noyes. Noyes advanced his social theory and philosophy which he termed "Perfectionism." Critics of the ideology would refer to the Perfectionists as "Noyesians."

This was Christian sect with socialist overtones. Noyes challenged accepted notions of a family structure. Subscribers to the Perfectionist paradigm were each to be married to every other member of the opposite sex. Housing, work and finances were also communally operated and shared.

Western New York state has been host to several attempts at Utopian design, including, Henry David Thoreaus Walden the Lilly Dale spiritualist assembly.

See also: The Oneida Community

References

• Maren Lockwood Carden, Oneida: Utopian Community to Modern Corporation, Syracuse University Press, 1998
• Richard Demaria, Communal Love at Oneida : A Perfectionist Vision of Authority, Property and Sexual Order (Texts and Studies in Religion Series Vol. 2), Edwin Mellen Press, 1984
• Lawrence Foster, Religion and Sexuality, University of Illinois Press, 1984
• Ira Mandelker, Religion, Society, and Utopia in Nineteenth-Century America, University of Massachusetts Press, August 1984
• John H. Noyes, Mutual Criticism, Syracuse University Press, June 1975
• Pierrepont B. Noyes, My Father's House : An Oneida Boyhood, Reprint Services, 1991