On Laudianism

Laudianism was both a way of being Christian and a political ideology. This definitive account of this intensely controversial movement explores how it helped cause the English civil war, but over the long term provided one of the visions of the national church, one that has been in contention to define 'Anglicanism' ever since.

Peter Lake is University Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of the History of Christianity, Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, USA. From 1993-2009 he was Professor of History at Princeton University, USA. He is the author of many books including The Boxmaker's Revenge and a forthcoming volume on Shakespeare's history plays.

Introduction: Part I. Laudianism, where it Came From: 1. A Trinitarian and incarnational theology; 2. Andrewes' political theology; 3. Andrewes' anti-puritanism; 4. Puritan politics; 5. The tree of repentance and its fruits; 6. Absent presences; the role of predestination in Andrewes' divinity; 7. The visible church and its ordinances; Part II. Laudianism, what it was: 8. The house of God; 9. The house of God and the beauty of holiness; 10. The beauty of holiness and ceremonial conformity; 11. Church ceremonies, the authority of the church and the authority of scripture; 12. Prayer; 13. Preaching; 14. The sacrament and the altar; 15. The sacrament and the social body of the church; 16. The altar and visible succession; 17. The feasts and festivals of the church, or putting the sabbath in its place; 18.Sunday sports and the re/constitution of the Christian community and the social order; 19. The sabbath and the Laudian attitude to authority; Part III. Laudianism, what it was n't: 20. Order, puritanism and the state of the English church; 21. Puritan 'privacy', or the forms of puritan voluntary religion anatomized; 22. A religion of the word and the question of authority; 23. Puritanism, popularity and politics; 24. Of moderate puritans and popular prelates; 25. The puritan threat, the church of England and the Personal Rule as a period of reformation; Part IV. Laudianism and Predestination: 26. Laudianism, puritanism and Arminianism revisited; 27. The language of mystery; 28. Fatal necessity; 29. Predestination, the positive case: of justice and mercy, prescience and predestination; 30. Faith, hope and charity; 31. Effort without merit; repentance, amendment and the works of penitence; Part V. Laudianism as Coalition, the Constituent Parts: 32. Dis-aggregating, or the pleasures and benefits of splitting; 33. Of converts, collaborators and apostates, i, puritans; 34. Of converts, collaborators and apostates, ii, Calvinist conformists; 35. Of apparatchiks, zealots and coming men; 36. The Laudian avant garde, (i) young men in a hurry; Cambridge University in the 1630s; 37. The Laudian avant garde, (ii) old men in a hurry; Robert Shelford, James Buck and Edward Kellett; 38. Tacking and trimming; negotiating the end of 'the Laudian moment'; 39. Conclusion.