Reason and Religion in Late Seventeenth-Century England: The Politics and Theology of Radical Dissent (International Library of Historical Studies) - Hardcover

Walker, Christopher J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780762925 ISBN 13: 9781780762920

Publisher: I.B. Tauris, 2013

Synopsis

Reason has always held an uncertain position within Christianity. ""I believe because it is absurd',"" wrote Tertullian in the third century as he dismissed rational thought. For Augustine of Hippo, reason had some merit as a route to faith but otherwise was of limited value, since it could undermine a person's ability to approach God: ""the wisdom of the creature,"" he opined, ""is a kind of twilight."" In seventeenth-century England, reason had come to mean, most usually, a spirit of free enquiry: the exercise of human intelligence upon some form of truth, whether religious or scientific. The notion of revelation, by contrast, indicated the wider accepted divine scheme within which human existence was situated. Christopher J Walker here explores the tensions between the forces of reason and revelation within English religion in the volatile period following the end of the Civil War. Ranging widely across the ideas of The Great Tew Circle, the Cambridge Platonists and dissenters like Paul Best and John Bidle (the ""father of English Unitarianism""), the author shows, controversially, that the rational thinking and politics of many of the most supposedly radical figures of the era were not antipathetic to Christian faith but actually integral to it. His book makes an important contribution to the history of both religion and ideas.

About this title

About the Author:

Christopher J Walker worked at Sotheby's and then as an editor at Penguin Books before winning a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to write a history of modern Armenia. He is the author of Oliver Baldwin: A Life of Dissent (2003), Visions of Ararat: Writings on Armenia (I.B.Tauris, 2005) and Islam and the West: A Dissonant Harmony of Civilizations (2005).

Review:

'Should reason or revelation have priority in matters of faith? What is the proper relationship between them? Christopher Walker explores these issues in a lively and trenchant study of the doctrine of the Trinity, which was established in the fourth century as a central tenet of Christian 'orthodoxy'. Scholarly, accessible, and ranging from the Early Fathers to the present day, the book offers a searching examination of the issue in the continental Reformation, the civil wars, and the late seventeenth century. The 1690s witnessed a fierce pamphlet war between Unitarians and champions of Trinitarian orthodoxy, who asserted a creed they proved signally unable to define satisfactorily, even to their own party. Bringing together history, philosophy and theology, Walker shows that while the Trinitarians won the war, thanks to the backing of the state, they had lost the argument.' - Bernard Capp, FBA, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Warwick 'What immediately strikes one about this book is the lucidity of its prose, the originality of its thesis and the breadth of its scope. A model of what a historical monograph should be, it not only challenges and enlarges our thinking about the past, but helps us better understand the present. At a time when religious belief is often simplistically portrayed as detached from "reason", Walker shows how historically the two have not been separate, and that "faith" has nothing to fear from '"reason". An indispensable resource for all with an interest in the history of ideas: a real tour de force!' - Andrew Bradstock, Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago 'This is a wide-ranging, thoughtful study, which features some edgy, provocative argument. It contains useful food for thought in making intellectual links between seventeenth-century Unitarianism and Islam. The author does a good job in showing how different threads of religious thought in Europe influenced English thinkers and theologians. Men as diverse as Newton, Tillotson and John Bidle disputed, discussed and frequently suffered as they laboured to explore their religious faith through the exercise of reason. In exploring the endeavours of such men and women, and their efforts to prove that reason and religion were not mutually incompatible in the later seventeenth century, this study makes a contribution to our understanding of the evolution of English concepts of toleration and fairness.' - David J Appleby, Lecturer in Early Modern History, University of Nottingham

About this edition

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1780762925
• ISBN 13: 9781780762920
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 312