Perfection Proclaimed: Language and Literature in English Radical Religion, 1640-60 - Hardcover

Smith, Nigel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198128797 ISBN 13: 9780198128793

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1989

Synopsis

The writings of the extreme Puritan "sects" of the Civil War and interregnum years and the "gathered churches", Baptists, and beyond them, Seekers, Ranters, Quakers, Muggletonians and the host of individual "prophets" have often been noted for their unusual literary features. This book attempts to study these features in full. It is an account of the development of radical religious literature between 1640 and 1660 in terms of the developing and increasingly extreme theologies of radical religion. The first part of the book explores the experiential and prophetic narratives in the "gathered churches" and their relationship with the claims of the most extreme elements, culminating in an account of the centrality of the recounting of dreams and visions across the radical spectrum, especially in the writings of the women prophets. The middle section deals with the use made by radical Puritans of mystical and occult writings, pre, post, and Counter-Reformation. The final section examines the theory and practice of radical religious language, juxtaposing the claims to speak the tongue of Adam or God with the continuing reliance upon particular devotional forms and residual cultural vehicles - from the dialogue to the nursery rhyme. The book aims to lay open radical religious culture, thus offering a reorientation of how the "sects" are seen to rest in history. Together with new evidence for individuals, the author argues for the significance of the continuities between radicalism and the rest of mid-17th century English society.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0198128797
• ISBN 13: 9780198128793
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 402