Peace, Toleration and Decay: the Ecclesiology of Later Stuart Dissent (Studies in Christian History and Thought)

Traditional approaches to early Nonconformity have divided its history at the Toleration Act of 1689. The intellectual history of the movement has largely focused on the ideas of Richard Baxter and John Locke. These conventions present a full understanding of the disunity and decline of the movement in the early eighteenth century. Continuities across the period and the gradual emergence of themes which would feed into evangelicalism have been obscured. The rich theological analysis of Dissent cannot be appreciated without detailed reference to the thought of other contemporary leaders, such as John Howe (1630-1705). His irenic ecclesiology shaped the response to toleration and influenced key leaders in the decades following his death. Crucial shifts in Nonconformist thinking may be traced in his writings and those of his successors, such as Calamy, Watts and Doddridge. This study re-examines a neglected strand of Nonconformist thought and proposes a new understanding of later Stuart dissent. The distinct characteristics of the movement are freshly defined and Dissent is situated in historical continuity between Puritanism and early Evangelicalism. Peace, Toleration and Decay provides a scholarly reinterpretation of an important group in a crucial period of English history. The themes which emerge inform the wider study of English ecclesiology and political theory under the Tutors and Stuarts