The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution [Paperback]

Christopher Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

The translation of the Bible into English in the 16th century was one of the most important events in English history. Previously, the sacred text had been accessible only to a tiny minority, now anybody could read or listen to it. This study explores some of the effects of the Bible - on English literature during its greatest century, on social, agrarian, foreign and colonial policies. During the 17th-century Revolution, the Bible was used to justify both resistance to and defence of the King, and it called into question all established institutions and practices. But the Revolution revealed the impossiblity of agreeing on what the Bible said. This book should help a better understanding of England's most controversial century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Social reformers, heresy hunters, political radicals, anti-Papists, Quakers, royalists, free-love advocates and physicians eager to regulate midwives all found support for their views in the Bible during England's revolutionary 17th century. The scriptures, as Hill demonstrates in this scholarly, often colorful study, permeated political and economic debates as well as everyday speech. Formerly Master of Balliol College, Oxford, Hill argues that the Bible, translated into vernacular English as early as 1534, "did far more good than harm" as a guide to immediate action, even though some people used it as a justification for patriarchy and national arrogance. He traces the Bible's impact on John Milton, John Bunyan and Andrew Marvell and concludes with a discussion of the Bible's "dethronement" as final arbiter by the 1690s, a move he deems a triumph of the human spirit.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

The impact of the Bible on England's experiment as a republic, charted expertly by one of the leading historians of the period. The American, French, and Russian revolutionaries consciously looked back for inspiration to the great conflict between king and parliament in mid-17th-century England; but the English of that time had no precedent, and the Bible, widely accessible in translation for over a hundred years, was their equivalent of Rousseau and Marx. Hill (The Experience of Defeat, 1984, etc.), author of over 20 books on the English revolution, offers a detailed study of just how the Bible was understood during the turbulent years of civil war, the strong-man rule by Cromwell, and the restoration of a modified monarchy. He shows how the history of Israel was used to justify both defense and defiance of the king in God's name, and how biblical allusions became a kind of code for spreading new ideas in spite of censorship. Hill draws on literary evidence, especially from his heroes Milton and Bunyan, and he traces themes such as anti-Christ, covenant, and the identification of Israel with Puritan England. Bible-reading by the common people, he says, led to a proliferation of radical groups (Diggers, Levellers, Ranters and the like) who questioned the whole established order and had a strong millenarian tendency. Hill is at home with these early socialists: Gerrard Winstanley, for example, thought all Scripture mere allegory to be freely interpreted by each one's ``inner light''--a view that in effect dethroned the Bible and led, in the following century, to its replacement by reason. Hill writes with touches of English humor, but the absence of a strong narrative makes the wealth of quotations confusing for anyone without a sound knowledge of the period. Not for the casual reader, but a gold mine for history students and those interested in the Puritan origins of the US. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140159908
• ISBN-13: 978-0140159905
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly book on an interesting subject, July 21, 2001

By 

Lehnberg (CEDARBURG, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The English Bible and the 17th-century Revolution (Hardcover)

Hill does a magnificent job examining the impact of vernacular bibles and increased literacy in 17th century England and how reading is fundamental to change, for better or for worse. Although his footnotes are precise and painstakingly formulated, they tend to interfere with the text's fluidity. The frequent quotes are entertaining; however, Hill would have done better to finish his thoughts in his own words. The interruptions make the reading choppy. There is a wealth of information here, though, and I consider this book both a handy reference for Renaissance study and an insightful roadmap to research of pre-modern English theology. The only obstacle between this book and a fifth star is its cerebral approach, making the assumption that its readers are intimately familiar with the period, the environment and the theology of 17th Century England.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ON BEING GOD'S ENGLISHMEN, June 6, 2007

By 

Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution (Paperback)

Although both the parliamentary and royalist sides (as well as factions within each side) in the English Revolution, the major revolutionary event of the 17th century, quoted the Bible, particularly the newer English versions, for every purpose from an account of the fall to the virtues of primitive communism that revolution cannot be properly understood except as a secular revolution. The first truly secular revolution of modern times. So why would the pre-eminent historian of the English Revolution, the late Christopher Hill, write a whole book about the influence of the Bible in that revolutionary period?

As been noted by more than one commentator there is sometimes a disconnect between the ideas in the air and the way those ideas get fought out in political struggle. In this case secular ideas, or what passed for such to us, such as the questions of the divinity of the monarch, of social, political and economic redistribution and the nature of the new society (the second coming) were expressed in familiar religious terms. That being the case there is no better guide to understanding the significance of the mass of biblical literary articles produced in the period than Mr. Hill. The only objection one can have is that he overloads his argument for the importance of the Bible in the social discourse of the times with more examples than necessary and with a certain redundancy and overlap in the subjects he looks at such as the importance of the garden (of Eden), the wilderness and the hedge in Biblical narrative, the concept of England as a chosen nation and the English as a chosen people and of the decisive weight of the Old Testament as a source of inspiration (and vengeance). However, this is only a minor objection.

In this expansive book Mr. Hill connects the wide spread use of the Bible with the revolution in printing bringing its message to the masses; the effects of the Protestant Reformation on individual responsibility for bible study and leading a moral life; various interpretations of Adam's fall, the consequences of that fall and the possibilities for redemption; the theology of the divine right of kings and the concept of the man of blood exemplified by Charles I; the role of the priesthood of all believers that foreshadow a very modern concept of the validity of individual religious expression; radical interpretations of equality and primitive communism, particularly the work of Gerrard Winstanley ; the Puritan ethic and many more subjects of interests. Here Hill also uses his usual cast of characters that one has met in other works including, Oliver Cromwell, Edmund Sexby, Hugh Peters, John Bunyan, the above-mentioned Gerrard Winstanley, Abizer Coppe, the Levelers, the Ranters, the Quakers and the Fifth Monarchists. And seemingly threading through the whole narrative, John Milton. Read on.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Never Received, October 19, 2009

By 

Steven H. Patterson - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The English Bible and the 17th-century Revolution (Hardcover)

All the other books I ordered from this shipment came in weeks ago. This one has yet to arrive, and it's well past the delivery date.