From Divine Cosmos to Sovereign State: An Intellectual History of Consciousness and the Idea of Order in Renaissance England - Hardcover

Collins, Stephen L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019505458X ISBN 13: 9780195054583

Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr, 1989

Synopsis

In the late English Renaissance, writers as varied as Shakespeare, Hooker, Bacon, and Hobbes problematically engaged the traditional idea of order and helped define a new, secular one. In this intellectual history, Collins treats the idea of order as a dynamic concept which incorporates changing views of self, society, and the relationship between private and public during these years. He sees this as a process of meaning redefinition that simultaneously heightens and comes to terms with the dissolution of the old idea of order; the self-consciously articulated concept of the representative sovereign state replaces the vision of the divine cosmos as the medium for identity and social order. Collins draws on a wide range of political, literary, and other contemporary writings to chart this process--now associated with secularization --providing a provocative analysis of social and intellectual change.

About this title

Synopsis

This is an intellectual history of the idea of order in Renaissance England, a time when writers as varied as Shakespeare and Hobbes confronted the decline of the traditional divinely ordained order, and helped to define a new, secular order. Collins traces the intellectual and psychological changes that altered the 16th-century English concept of the structure of society, its ultimate purpose and the proper role of the individual. This fundamental change of world view, now associated with the idea of modernity, is evidenced in the literary and other writings of the time which Collins weaves into an analysis of social and intellectual change.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 019505458X
• ISBN 13: 9780195054583
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English