A concise history from the English Civil War to the end of the Commonwealth
Andrew Bradstock published by I.B.Tauris 2011 pp189 paperback £15.99
I've had this book on order for over two years but it's worth waiting for. Andrew is now Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public issues at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His previous post was heading up Church and Society in the United Reformed Church and Director of the Christian Socialist Movement.
This book continues his writing on radical religion and politics in seventeenth century England. It is dedicated to Chris Rowland with whom he edited "Radical Christian Writings: A Reader" in 2002.
Raised in a particular Baptist household Andrew Bradstock's first encounter with seventeenth century radicals came via Christopher Hill's "The World Turned Upside Down". Religious issues and the Bible primarily drove the conflict and affected the way people thought and acted. Cromwell consulted God before making important decisions. The book focuses on people who joined together around a certain body of ideas and who wanted political, economic, social and religious change.
The succession of new movements: the pioneering democratic Levellers; communist Diggers who strove to make the earth a common treasury, millenarian Fifth Monarchists, proclaiming an imminent kingdom of heaven on earth; and Quakers, fiery and combative evangelists who struck fear into most of their contemporaries. Their challenging ideas are brought vividly to life along with Baptists, Ranters and Muggletonians. This is the first genuinely concise and accessible history of these fascinating ideas and movements many of which are prophetic of modern spiritual and political explorations. Andrew Bradstock concludes that many of the concerns they raised – on democracy, authority, toleration, property rights, and gender – remain pressing issues today.
I was encouraged by the way women perceived to be endowed with divine grace played a significant role in many of the groups.
I liked Andrew's reference to Tony Benn's having pointed out in an address at one of the earliest "Levellers Day" gatherings at Burford, that while Cromwell's place in history may be secure, the ideas of some of those he ignored, opposed and silenced while moving to establish his Commonwealth, have "shown greater durability than the institutional changes he carried through in his short reign as Lord Protector"! Why not join me at Levellers Day on 14th May 2011 in Burford?
