The Early English Baptists, 1603-49
Stephen Wright
This book challenges the orthodoxy that seventeenth-century Baptists were divided from the first into two separate denominations, 'Particular' and 'General', defined by their differing attitudes to predestination and the atonement, showing how the position was in fact much more complicated. It describes how from the foundation of the 'Generals' in 1609 there were always two tendencies, one clericalist and pacifist, influenced by the Dutch Mennonites, and one reflecting the English traditions of erastianism and local lay predominance in religion. It re-analyses the confessional struggle during and after the civil war, showing how Independent and erastian sentiment in Parliament increasingly combined to baulk Presbyterian ambition; during and partly because of this process (which they also influenced), the Baptists evolved into three recognisable tendencies. Amongst General Baptists there was a politically radical current, but also a more passive tendency which was starting to gain ground. In 1647-9 most but by no means all Particular Baptist leaders were hostile to the Levellers. The book looks at the nature of religious conviction in the New Model Army, reassessing the role and influence of Baptists in it. In the late 40s, many Baptists, soldiers and civilians, rejected formal ordinances altogether.
STEPHEN WRIGHT received his Ph.D. from the University of London. He has been visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire and the University of North London.
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DETAILS
288 pages
Size: 23.4 x 15.6 cm
13 digit ISBN: 9781843831952
Binding: Hardback
First published: 01/Mar/2006
Price: 115.00 USD / 60.00 GBP
Imprint: Boydell Press
Subject: Modern History
BIC class: HBCL
STATUS: Print on demand (please allow 3 weeks for delivery)
Details updated on 05/01/2009
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Reviews
The best, most reliable, history of the early Baptists. PATRICK COLLINSON, ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW
Sets a high standard for meticulous scholarship that advances new and persuasive theories for a foundational time period in Baptist history. [...] Stephen Wright's work is exhaustive, detailed, and persuasive. BAPTIST THEOLOGY, SW BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
This important book deserves to be read widely and its results incorporated into the way the story of early Baptists is told. THE EXPOSITORY TIMES
A well documented historical reassessment of the place these believers held in the early Stuart era. [...] [This] work will hopefully lead to further studies of the early English Baptists. RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
Offers an in-depth reading of the primary and secondary sources of English Baptist origins and provides several provocative revisions to standard treatments of the era. BAPTIST HISTORY & HERITAGE
Demonstrate[s] the rich diversity characteristic of Baptist belief in the period and the complex inter-relationships between different leaders, congregations, and groupings.it thus offers an important contribution to a fuller understanding of the English Revolution. JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY
Wright's volume is very much to be welcomed moving as it does beyond the traditional debates. REVIEWS IN HISTORY
A significant contribution to our understanding about how Baptists developed in the 1640s and why they belonged to differing factions. [...] For anyone seriously interested in looking at Baptists beginnings in seventeenth-century England, Dr Wright has set down a challenge which cannot be ignored. BAPTIST QUARTERLY
A most impressive and well-argued work. BAPTIST UNION OF SCOTLAND NEWS
This erudite work must be read by those interested in the origins of the Baptist traditions. CONGREGATIONAL HISTORY CIRCLE MAGAZINE
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