Contesting the English Polity, 1660-1688: Religion, Politics, and Ideas (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781783277360)

What did people in Restoration England think the correct relationship between church state should be? And how did this thinking evolve?

Based on the author's published essays, revised and updated with a new overarching introduction, this book explores the debates in Restoration England about "godly rule". The book assesses some of the crucial transitions in English history: how the late Reformation gave way to the early Enlightenment; how Royalism became Toryism and Puritanism became Whiggism; how the power of churchmen was challenged by virulent anticlericalism; how the verities of "divine right" theory revived and collapsed. Providing a distinctive account of English thought in the era between the two revolutions of the Stuart century, "Contesting the English Polity, 1660-1688" discusses the ideological foundations of emerging party politics, and the deep intellectual roots of competing visions for the commonwealth, placing the power of religion, and the taming of religion, squarely alongside constitutional battles within secular politics.

Author: Mark Goldie
ISBN-10: 178327736X
ISBN-13: 9781783277360
Publisher: Boydell Press
Language: English
Published: 09/19/2023
Pages: 344
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.81d