The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus: James Nayler and the Puritan Crackdown on the Free Spirit (Hardcover)

by Leo Damrosch (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
["The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus"] conveys the power of religion in mid-seventeenth-century English society and politics in a very evocative way...[The Quakers] have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years and much is now known about the early Quakers, especially their militant and unconventional behaviour, which was very different from the pacifism and respectibility of the movement after the middle of the seventeenth century and which made the early Quakers an object of great fear and hostility among conventional opinion at the time. What until now has been much less obvious, are the answers to two questions about the early Quakers: why did some people find their message attractive; and why did James Nayler, one of the first Quaker preachers, ride into Bristol in October 1656 re-enacting Christ's entry into Jerusalem, for which he was convicted of 'horrid blasphemy'? "The Sorrows of Quaker Jesus" supplies the fullest answers to date to both of these questions. -- Barry Coward "History Today"

Product Description

In October 1656 James Nayler, a prominent Quaker leader--second only to George Fox in the nascent movement--rode into Bristol surrounded by followers singing hosannas in deliberate imitation of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. In Leo Damrosch's trenchant reading this incident and the extraordinary outrage it ignited shed new light on Cromwell's England and on religious thought and spirituality in a turbulent period.

Damrosch gives a clear picture of the origins and early development of the Quaker movement, elucidating the intellectual foundations of Quaker theology. A number of central issues come into sharp relief, including gender symbolism and the role of women, belief in miraculous cures, and--particularly in relation to the meaning of the entry into Bristol--"signs of the in-dwelling spirit." Damrosch's account of the trial and savage punishment of Nayler for blasphemy exposes the politics of the Puritan response, the limits to Cromwellian religious liberalism.

The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus is at once a study of antinomian religious thought, of an exemplary individualist movement that suddenly found itself obliged to impose order, and of the ways in which religious and political ideas become intertwined in a period of crisis. It is also a vivid portrait of a fascinating man.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (September 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674821432
• ISBN-13: 978-0674821439
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,396,845 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glad I paid $40., November 23, 1997

By	[e-mail] (NJ) - See all my reviews

Friends; I have finished a new book, "The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus; James Nayler and the Puritan Crackdown on the free Spirit", by Leo Damrosch, Prof of Literature, Harvard. One of Prof. Damrosch's main interests is the Puritan reaction to Quakers, to do this he develops, as background, a description of mid-17th Century Quakerism. I wish he had done as well for Puritanism. Another interest is the shoddy treatment Nayler received from Parliament (which really had no business dealing with Nayler, but since there was no Constitution, who is to say) and the shoddy (but different) treatment Nayler received from G. Fox and other Quakers. Since Damrosch is not trying to "convince" to Qism this was a refreshing treatment for me. He has worked with a concordance to find the Biblical allusions of Quaker speech and writing to fair success, missing only a few important ones. University presses are pricey, this is $40, but I am glad I paid the price. Joseph H. Condon, Engineer, Quaker

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars definitive treatment of controversial Quaker, November 7, 2001

By	D. Corl (Fukuoka Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Damrosch's book is the most definitive treatment of Nayler (also spelled Naylor), the controversial contemporary od George Fox, who was tried byt he English Parliament for blasphemy. It corrects many of the factual errors in Bittle's book on the same subject.