The National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, 1660-1696

This book explores the legacy of the Covenants in England, examining how they were shorn of religious implications and repurposed to serve a pluralistic vision of the role of religion in politics and public life. It traces the influence of the Covenants in the context of radical Presbyterianism and mainstream debates around politics, church government, and the constitution of the British kingdoms. The Covenants continued to have relevance in discussing the competing legacies of the English and Scottish Reformations and the confused issues of church and state.

Format: Hardback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 12 April 2022
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

This book delves into the historical transformation of the Covenants, shedding their religious connotations and repurposing them to serve a pluralistic vision of religion's role in politics and public life. Until now, scholarly attention has primarily focused on the Covenants' role in the conflicts of the 1640s, with limited discussion of their significance after 1660. However, this book expands its scope beyond Scotland, exploring the legacy of the Covenants in England. It examines the discourse surrounding key events during the Restoration period and traces the influence of the Covenants within the context of radical Presbyterianism and mainstream debates surrounding politics, church government, and the constitution of the British kingdoms.

The Covenants retained their relevance in two primary ways. Firstly, they served as touchstones for discussing the competing legacies of the English and Scottish Reformations and the complex issues of church and state that characterized the Restoration period. Furthermore, the form of the Covenants, as solemn individual subscriptions to a constitutional and religious model, and the political ideas that underpinned them, were emulated by those seeking to resist royal authority during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679-81 and the events surrounding the Revolution of 1688-9. Thus, this book holds particular interest for students of constitutionalism, legal pluralism, or civil religion in seventeenth-century Britain, as well as those seeking to deepen their understanding of the intellectual origins of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Revolution of 1688-9.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781783276042