Violence And Religion: Attitudes Towards Militancy

Description:
Challenges to secular authority and relative justifications are recurring themes throughout European history. This book examines the rise of this challenge as it developed during the Reformation with special reference to the social and political upheavals of the French Civil Wars and the English Revolution. The diverse writings of varied influential thinkers and political actors, including Calvin d'Aubigne and Marvell, are considered in the light of contemporary events, and the similarities between their religious interpretations are compared. Each of these writers presents a direct response to what was regarded as a spiritual challenge. Through close textual analysis of these writings the author reconstructs the philosophical terms of one of the major concerns of the period.