It is well known that the early Stuart and Interregnum periods witnessed an explosion of interest in the organizing potential of covenantal ideas. This study attempts to explain and interpret this interest by integrating the narrative of the development of covenant theology with that of a series of key mid-seventeenth century ecclesiastical and political debates in England. Covenant theology not only was related integrally to the development of ecclesiastical and political covenants and various early modern resistance theories, but its soteriological concerns were intertwined inexorably with political disputes regarding the proper mode of ecclesiastical governance, the relationship between civil and ecclesiastical authority, and the meaning, extent, and function of natural law. Transactions between these ideas moved in both directions, and therefore theological developments led to new resources for political legitimation, while at the same time the rapidly changing political landscape reciprocally influenced the maturation of covenant theology.
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This study focuses on the development and deployment of the biblical covenant between God and Moses in early Stuart and Interregnum theological, ecclesiological, and political thought, primarily focusing on the period between the early 1620s and the 1650s. This particular locus of covenantal thought is one of the primary strands connecting these three modes of discourse. Thus, attention to developing understandings of this particular administration of the âold covenantâ helps to illustrate the nature of the interplay between religion and politics in this period without collapsing the two on the one hand or making religion the explanatory matrix for political conflict on the other. The central thesis is that a proper understanding of the politics of the period requires understanding the development of covenant theology and how that development was interrelated with the development of political and ecclesiastical covenants.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07212016-070312 |
| Date | 28 July 2016 |
| Creators | Martin, Andrew Joseph |
| Contributors | Paul C. H. Lim, James P. Byrd, Peter Lake, Emily C. Nacol |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07212016-070312/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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