William Harrison and the Two Churches in Elizabethan Puritan Thinking
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10089891 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Glyn Parry (0000-0001-6000-2110, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 370-393 |
| Publication date | 1985-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Ecclesiastical History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0469 • E-ISSN: 1469-7637 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0022046900041154 |
| OpenAlex | W1978284189 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 8 |
There are currently two approaches to the perennial problem of characterising Elizabethan puritanism. Successive attempts to establish a general taxonomy have failed to describe the historical diversity of puritan thinking. Recently the variable contemporary meanings of the epithet ‘puritan’ have been emphasised.1 Neither approach advances our understanding of reforming ideas within the Elizabethan Church, because the first tries to make individuals conform to type and the second limits the usefulness of the term ‘puritan’ in historical discussion. Both approaches ignore important facets of the intellectual environment of puritanism, particularly the contemporary historical vision. The present study offers an alternative approach to the problem through an analysis of the religious mentality revealed in the writings of William Harrison. It argues that Harrison's works reveal some of the underlying assumptions of puritan thinking. By comparing Harrison's thought with that of some radical and conformist contemporaries, it attempts to show that a distinctive historical interpretation, and the application of that interpretation to contemporary conditions, provide a consistent index to puritanism. Analysis of Harrison's thought suggests that, for radicals, divinely inspired faith and knowledge were transmitted through the past, providing a universally normative truth whose criteria could be used to evaluate contemporary circumstances. This truth, which directed every facet of life, establishing the limits of the individual's interests, of his knowledge and of its application, was centred in Israel. To depart from its criteria was to lapse into Gentilism
Epistemology · Epithet · Faith · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Normative · Political science · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
The Elizabethan Puritan movement
Puritanism in Tudor England
Episcopacy and Reform in England in the Later Sixteenth Century
The Significance of the Elizabethan Identification of the Pope as Antichrist
Hooker, Travers and the Church of Rome in the 1580s
Matthew Hutton–a Puritan Bishop
William Harrison and Holinshed'S Chronicles
| Citations per year | 0.02 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1984 - 1984 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |