Religion in Enlightenment England: An Anthology of Primary Sources

by Jayne Elizabeth Lewis (Editor)

Overview

Religion in Enlightenment England introduces its readers to a rich array of British Christian texts published between 1660 and 1750. The anthology documents the arc of Christian writings from the reestablishment of the Church of England to the rise of the Methodist movement in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment era witnessed the explosion of mass print culture and the unprecedented expansion of literacy across society. These changes transformed many inherited Christian genres—such as the sermon and the devotional manual—while also generating new ones, from the modern church hymn to spiritual autobiography.

The authors included in this collection confronted the rise of modern science and forged new rules of modern toleration. Their writing reveals the unprecedented spiritual authority assumed by women and helps explain how emotion moved to the center of religious experience. Religion in Enlightenment England captures the literary energy and excitement unleashed by the Enlightenment itself: authors engage one another in spirited dialogue that pits reason against revelation, religious conformity against dissent, innovation against tradition, and Freethinking against natural religion.

An indispensable asset for any scholar’s library, the anthology includes texts by William Law, John Bunyan, Elizabeth Singer Rowe, John and Charles Wesley, Richard Baxter, John Toland, Mary Astell, Daniel Defoe, John Norris, Margaret Fell Fox, Isaac Watts, Thomas Traherne, John Tillotson, William Penn, and Anne Conway.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602583009
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2017
Series:	Documents of Anglophone Christianity
Pages:	420
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jayne Elizabeth Lewis is Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Anglican Apologetics
John Tillotson
Mary Astell
William Law
II. Dissenting Voices
Margaret Fell
Richard Baxter
John Bunyan
William Penn
Daniel Defoe
Isaac Watts
III. The Methodist Movement
John Wesley
George Whitefield
IV. Freethinking
Anthony Collins
John Toland
V. Nature
John Ray
Richard Blackmore
VI. Visions
Thomas Traherne
Anne Conway
Jane Lead
VII. Miracle
Anonymous
John Toland
Samuel Clarke
David Hartley
VIII. Spirits
Joseph Glanvill
Francis Hutchinson
Daniel Defoe
IX. Devotion
John Norris
William Law
Elizabeth Singer Rowe
X. The Hymn
Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate
Richard Baxter
Thomas Ken
John Mason
Benjamin Keach
Isaac Watts
Charles Wesley
XI. Spiritual Autobiography
John Bunyan
Anne Dutton

What People are Saying About This

Steven J. Mailloux

In Religion in Enlightenment England, Jayne Lewis expertly represents the rich multiplicity of voices in Anglophone Christianity during the period of expanding print culture from the restoration of the Church of England through the Methodist revival. The picture that emerges is that of a conflicted society struggling mightily to manage religious differences. This collection is not just for eighteenth-century scholars of British literature. In the fullness of its primary materials and the excellence of its introduction and headnotes, it provides a valuable resource for thinking deeply about the complex history of the post-secular present.

Toni Bowers

Seldom has an anthology of primary documents been as sorely needed, or as expertly edited, as this one. It is impossible to speak with authority about eighteenth-century British culture without understanding how biblical language, Christian values, and competitions among Protestant ideologies permeated that world. Lewis performs a great service with this trove of primary documents, texts once supremely influential but now often neglected. Every scholar and teacher of eighteenth-century studies needs to know the material collected in this invaluable volume.

Misty G. Anderson

Jayne Lewis' Religion in Enlightenment England shows the centrality of religion and religious thought to the Enlightenment project in a series of well-chosen selections and helpful introductions. Lewis outlines the collaborative relationship of science and faith, the social importance of Christian sociability, the role of religious thought in shaping the novel, and the musical and spiritual influence of Methodism. This anthology will be a welcome supplement to courses that emphasize the place of religious thought in the age of restoration, experiment, and reason.

Editorial Reviews

With substantial and beautifully written introductions to each major section and to individual authors, the whole of the volume is contextualized in light of the significant changes in scholarship on English religion in the last thirty years.

Reading Religion - James E. Bradley

In Religion in Enlightenment England, Jayne Lewis expertly represents the rich multiplicity of voices in Anglophone Christianity during the period of expanding print culture from the restoration of the Church of England through the Methodist revival. The picture that emerges is that of a conflicted society struggling mightily to manage religious differences. This collection is not just for eighteenth-century scholars of British literature. In the fullness of its primary materials and the excellence of its introduction and headnotes, it provides a valuable resource for thinking deeply about the complex history of the post-secular present.

Seldom has an anthology of primary documents been as sorely needed, or as expertly edited, as this one. It is impossible to speak with authority about eighteenth-century British culture without understanding how biblical language, Christian values, and competitions among Protestant ideologies permeated that world. Lewis performs a great service with this trove of primary documents, texts once supremely influential but now often neglected. Every scholar and teacher of eighteenth-century studies needs to know the material collected in this invaluable volume.

Jayne Lewis’ Religion in Enlightenment England shows the centrality of religion and religious thought to the Enlightenment project in a series of well-chosen selections and helpful introductions. Lewis outlines the collaborative relationship of science and faith, the social importance of Christian sociability, the role of religious thought in shaping the novel, and the musical and spiritual influence of Methodism. This anthology will be a welcome supplement to courses that emphasize the place of religious thought in the age of restoration, experiment, and reason.

From the Publisher