The Seventh-Day Men

by Ball, Bryan W.

• ISBN13: 9780227173114
• ISBN10: 0227173112
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-31
• Publisher: James Clarke

Summary

'The Seventh-day Men¿ was a title given by contemporaries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to an emerging body of Christians who observed Saturday, rather than Sunday, as the divinely appointed day of rest and worship. This is an extensively revised edition of the first fully documented account of the Sabbatarian movement and how it spread over England and Wales in the two centuries following the Reformation. Drawing on many rare manuscripts and printed works, Dr Ball provides clear evidence that this Christian movement was far more widespread than is often recognized, appearing in more than thirty counties. The author analyses the movement by tracking down its origins as far back as the Celtic tradition, showing its first appearance as 'modern¿ Sabbatarianism around 1402, and finally exploring its decline in the eighteenth century. As the first comprehensive study of the subject, this book establishes this movement as a significant strand of thought in the history of English Nonconformity, with considerable influence on the religious life of the period. The first comprehensive study of the history of the Sabbatarian movement in England and Wales. An invaluable source for church historians and all those interested in the religious developments of the early modern period. The first comprehensive study of the history of the Sabbatarian movement in England and Wales. An invaluable source for church historians and all those interested in the religious developments of the early modern period

Author Biography

Bryan W. Ball is a retired academic and the author of numerous books, including The Soul Sleepers: Christian Mortalism from Wycliffe to Priestley and The English Connection. He holds a PhD from the University of London and has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the Encyclopaedia of World Faiths. He was Head of the Religious Studies Department at Newbold College, England, and then became Principal of Avondale College, Australia, where he is currently a Honorary Senior Research Fellow.