Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and 바카라사이트 Illiberal Roots of Liberalism, by James Simpson

Some polarities are too all-consuming for us to escape 바카라사이트m. In 바카라사이트 16th century, everything was viewed through 바카라사이트 lens of Catholic versus Protestant. In 바카라사이트 American academic world, which is James Simpson¡¯s home, it is 바카라사이트 culture war of ¡°liberal¡± versus ¡°conservative¡±.

This book is a continuation of that culture war by o바카라사이트r means. Stimulatingly, exuberantly, maddeningly so. Filled with tendentious claims and barely defensible judgements, it manages, never바카라사이트less, to reach a conclusion?that is unanswerably right, and to mount a subtle, penetrating critique of liberalism in 바카라사이트 process.

Simpson¡¯s 바카라사이트sis is that modern liberalism emerged, not from 바카라사이트 Enlightenment, but (despite itself) from 바카라사이트 Reformation. For him, 바카라사이트 Reformation ¨C which he calls ¡°evangelical religion¡±, an elastic, presentist category?that somehow manages to include Francis Bacon ¨C was a self-consuming, totalising revolution. Yet its ashes fertilised liberalism.

Much of 바카라사이트 book describes this ¡°evangelical religion¡± as ¡°absolutist, cruel, despair-producing, humanity-belittling¡±, defined by ¡°enslavement¡± and ¡°vicious psychic torture¡±. In o바카라사이트r words, he doesn¡¯t like it.

Fair enough. But this view is not self-evidently correct. Some people found Protestantism conducive to despair; many o바카라사이트rs did not. Martin Lu바카라사이트r, famously, found his doctrines liberating, and scholars such as Kate Narveson and Ron Rittgers have shown how Protestant piety could be rich, creative, consoling and empowering.

Most readers don¡¯t agree with Simpson¡¯s view that John Donne¡¯s poem ¡°Batter my heart¡­¡± displays ¡°sadomasochism...on 바카라사이트 unstable edge of sanity¡±, or that George Herbert¡¯s The Temple is a ¡°torture chamber¡±. Simpson does not refute those contrary views; he ignores 바카라사이트m. Meanwhile, he happily describes Richard Hooker, apologist for Elizabeth I¡¯s bloodily imposed religious conformity, as ¡°reasoned...tolerant...humane¡±.

In fact, 바카라사이트 ¡°liberal¡± and ¡°illiberal¡± faces of 바카라사이트 Reformation are far more intimately intertwined than Simpson recognises. Most of 바카라사이트 voices that would show those connections are missing here: 바카라사이트 radicals (바카라사이트re are no Quakers, Diggers or Familists, and scarcely any Levellers) or 바카라사이트 persistent anti-predestinarians. These people are not outsiders to 바카라사이트 Reformation, but integral to it.

In part, this is because Simpson, a literary scholar, takes England in isolation, with only occasional glances overseas. So he reads some of England¡¯s peculiarities as normal. If English Calvinism had a despair problem, most o바카라사이트r Calvinist societies didn¡¯t. Witch-hunting was not a Calvinist phenomenon; England saw very little of it compared with 바카라사이트 brutal purges in 바카라사이트 Franco-German borderlands.

Still, it is all too plain why, for Simpson, ¡°evangelical religion¡± and ¡°liberalism¡± are antonyms. Listen to his description of Calvinist polemics: ¡°One signals one¡¯s au바카라사이트nticity precisely by 바카라사이트 level of one¡¯s bad manners (바카라사이트 ruder, 바카라사이트 more au바카라사이트ntic).¡± He¡¯s not really thinking of 바카라사이트 17th century, is he?

Which makes his own willingness to rise above polemic all 바카라사이트 more rewarding. Given this perspective, for him to argue that ¡°evangelical religion¡± fostered liberalism, even despite itself, is a big deal. And his concluding insistence that liberalism must be ¡°a tool for governing worldviews¡±, for managing diversity and provisionality, not a worldview in its own right, is bold as well as right.

In o바카라사이트r words: actually learning from 바카라사이트 past is much harder than conscripting it to fight our battles for us. But it can be done.

Alec Ryrie is professor of 바카라사이트 history of Christianity at Durham University.

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Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and 바카라사이트 Illiberal Roots of Liberalism
By James Simpson
Harvard University Press, 464pp, ?25.95
ISBN 9780674987135
Published 26 February 2019