Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain

by Edited by Knud Haakonssen

• ISBN13: 9780521029872
• ISBN10: 0521029872
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book makes a comprehensive reassessment of the relationship between Enlightenment and religion in England. The debate about an 'English' Enlightenment has centred on the role of religion, especially the relationship between the established Anglican Church and the dissenting confessions. It has long been accepted that liberal, rational dissenters developed an Enlightenment agenda, but most literature on this topic is quite out of date. These interdisciplinary essays provide a fresh analysis of rational dissent within English Enlightenment culture. Equally, they contribute to the debate over eighteenth-century religion and its social, political and intellectual meaning, focusing on the Irish and Scottish contributions to English dissent. Its wide perspective and research make Enlightenment and Religion an important and original contribution to eighteenth-century studies.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	ix
Acknowledgements	xii
Enlightened Dissent: an introduction	1	(11)
Knud Haakonssen
The emergence of Rational Dissent	12	(30)
R. K. Webb
Rational Dissent in early eighteenth-century Ireland	42	(22)
M.A. Stewart
The Enlightenment, politics and providence: some Scottish and English comparisons	64	(35)
Martin Fitzpatrick
The contribution of the Dissenting academy to the emergence of Rational Dissent	99	(41)
David L. Wykes
`A set of men powerful enough in many things': Rational Dissent and political opposition in England, 1770--1790	140	(29)
John Seed
Law, lawyers and Rational Dissent	169	(24)
Wilfrid Prest
The nexus between theology and political doctrine in Church and Dissent	193	(26)
A.M.C. Waterman
Anglican latitudinarianism, Rational Dissent and political radicalism in the late eighteenth century	219	(22)
John Gascoigne
The State as highwayman: from candour to rights	241	(31)
Alan Saunders
Priestley on politics, progress and moral theology	272	(15)
Alan Tapper
Rational piety	287	(25)
R. K. Webb
New Jerusalems: Prophecy, Dissent and radical culture in England, 1786--1830	312	(24)
Iain McCalman
Index of names	336