To Network or Not to Network: Art, the Literary, and “Invention” in Early Modern European Radical Religion

Abstract This article contrasts hostility toward visual and literary art in English radical Puritanism before the late seventeenth century with the central role of art for Dutch Mennonites, many involved in the commercial prosperity of Amsterdam. Both 1620s Mennonites and 1650s–1660s Quakers debated...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Smith, Nigel 1958- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2021
In: Church history and religious culture
Year: 2021, Volume: 101, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 376-398
Further subjects:B Quakers
B Holy Spirit
B Bible
B Poetry
B Invention
B Conversion
B Species
B Humor
B Mennonites
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Summary:Abstract This article contrasts hostility toward visual and literary art in English radical Puritanism before the late seventeenth century with the central role of art for Dutch Mennonites, many involved in the commercial prosperity of Amsterdam. Both 1620s Mennonites and 1650s–1660s Quakers debated the relationship between literal truth of the Bible and claims for the power of a personally felt Holy Spirit. This was the intra-Mennonite “Two-Word Dispute,” and for Quakers an opportunity to attack Puritans who argued that the Bible was literally the Word of God, not the “light within.” Mennonites like Jan Theunisz and Quakers like Samuel Fisher made extensive use of learning, festive subversion and poetry. Texts from the earlier dispute were republished in order to traduce the Quakers when they came to Amsterdam in the 1650s and discovered openness to conversation but not conversion.
ISSN:1871-2428
Contains:Enthalten in: Church history and religious culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/18712428-bja10022