The Bible may be the most important book ever written.
But in 17th-century England it was also a radical document.
In this brilliant history Christopher Hill analyses the importance of the Bible to the life of England in the period after it became widely printed and read.
The book, in particular the Old Testament, taught citizens of England how to react to current events and situations in a very volatile era of its history.
As well as looking at the Bible’s influence on literature, chiefly the works of Bunyan and Milton, Hill also describes the concept of Fast Sermons by men of faith and politics.
More than any other nation at the time, England saw itself as the ‘chosen nation’.
‘What caused the English civil war? What brought Charles I to the scaffold? The answer to both questions: the Bible. To sustain this provocative thesis, Christopher Hill's maps English intellectual history from the Reformation to 1660, showing how scripture dominated every department of thought from sexual relations to political theory...His erudition is staggering' — John Carey in the Sunday Times
‘Once again, Hill has succeeded in turning upside-down a world of common misconceptions ... The complexity of the relationship between seventeenth-century politics and religion is everywhere in evidence in Hill's book...It is difficult to imagine anyone else writing this book, astonishing in its originality and yet also in the way it makes that originality seem so obvious once stated' — B. A. Cummings in the New Statesman & Society
‘A historical study which deepens and intensifies the peerless work its author has already done in this period...Reading Hill's book, we watch an enormous subject become manageable in the hands of its acknowledged master’ — Andrew Motion, the Observer
‘Hill's discussion...is fascinating, and as usual sure to provoke debate’ — A. C. Grayling in the Financial Times
‘A fascinating study...Hill's work is rooted in that all-embracing 17th-century scholarship of which he is the master, so that his multitudinous references, to say nothing of his allusions to fellow scholars, august or aspiring, are almost as dazzling as the text itself' — Antonia Fraser in The Times
Christopher Hill (1912-2003) was a university lecturer in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history, and from 1965 to 1978 he was Master of Balliol College. His many books and textbooks include ‘Milton and the English Revolution’ and ‘Liberty Against the Law’.
Endeavour Press is the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.
But in 17th-century England it was also a radical document.
In this brilliant history Christopher Hill analyses the importance of the Bible to the life of England in the period after it became widely printed and read.
The book, in particular the Old Testament, taught citizens of England how to react to current events and situations in a very volatile era of its history.
As well as looking at the Bible’s influence on literature, chiefly the works of Bunyan and Milton, Hill also describes the concept of Fast Sermons by men of faith and politics.
More than any other nation at the time, England saw itself as the ‘chosen nation’.
‘What caused the English civil war? What brought Charles I to the scaffold? The answer to both questions: the Bible. To sustain this provocative thesis, Christopher Hill's maps English intellectual history from the Reformation to 1660, showing how scripture dominated every department of thought from sexual relations to political theory...His erudition is staggering' — John Carey in the Sunday Times
‘Once again, Hill has succeeded in turning upside-down a world of common misconceptions ... The complexity of the relationship between seventeenth-century politics and religion is everywhere in evidence in Hill's book...It is difficult to imagine anyone else writing this book, astonishing in its originality and yet also in the way it makes that originality seem so obvious once stated' — B. A. Cummings in the New Statesman & Society
‘A historical study which deepens and intensifies the peerless work its author has already done in this period...Reading Hill's book, we watch an enormous subject become manageable in the hands of its acknowledged master’ — Andrew Motion, the Observer
‘Hill's discussion...is fascinating, and as usual sure to provoke debate’ — A. C. Grayling in the Financial Times
‘A fascinating study...Hill's work is rooted in that all-embracing 17th-century scholarship of which he is the master, so that his multitudinous references, to say nothing of his allusions to fellow scholars, august or aspiring, are almost as dazzling as the text itself' — Antonia Fraser in The Times
Christopher Hill (1912-2003) was a university lecturer in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century history, and from 1965 to 1978 he was Master of Balliol College. His many books and textbooks include ‘Milton and the English Revolution’ and ‘Liberty Against the Law’.
Endeavour Press is the UK’s leading independent publisher of digital books.
