Defining the Jacobean Church The Politics of Religious Controversy, 16031625 [Paperback]

This 2005 book proposes a model for understanding religious debates in the Churches of England and Scotland from 1603 to 1625.This book proposes a new model for understanding religious debates in the churches of England and Scotland between 1603 and 1625. Its theme is ecclesiology--the nature of the church, its rites and governance, and its relationship to the early Stuart political world. It argues that rival interpretations of scripture, pagan and civil history and the sources central to the Christian historical tradition lay at the heart of disputes between proponents of contrasting ecclesiological visions on the political and spiritual role of church.This book proposes a new model for understanding religious debates in the churches of England and Scotland between 1603 and 1625. Its theme is ecclesiology--the nature of the church, its rites and governance, and its relationship to the early Stuart political world. It argues that rival interpretations of scripture, pagan and civil history and the sources central to the Christian historical tradition lay at the heart of disputes between proponents of contrasting ecclesiological visions on the political and spiritual role of church.Proposing a new model for understanding religious debates in the churches of England and Scotland between 1603 and 1625, Charles Prior sets aside 'narrow' analyses of conflict over predestination, This book's theme is ecclesiology--the nature of the church, its rites and governance, and its relationship to the early Stuart political world. Drawing on a substantial number of polemical works, from sermons to books of several hundred pages, it argues that rival interpretations of scripture, pagan and civil history and the sources central to the Christian historical tradition lay at the heart of disputes between proponents of contrasting ecclesiological visions.1. Introduction: defining the Church; 2. The language of ecclesiastical polity and Jacobean conformist thought; 3. Doctrine, law, and l5