Religion in Enlightenment England

In Religion in Enlightenment England, Jayne Lewis expertly represents the rich multiplicity of voices in Anglophone Christianity during the period of expanding print culture from the restoration of the Church of England through the Methodist revival. The picture that emerges is that of a conflicted society struggling mightily to manage religious differences. This collection is not just for eighteenth-century scholars of British literature. In the fullness of its primary materials and the excellence of its introduction and headnotes, it provides a valuable resource for thinking deeply about the complex history of the post-secular present.

~Steven J. Mailloux, President’s Professor of Rhetoric, Loyola Marymount University

Jayne Lewis’ Religion in Enlightenment England shows the centrality of religion and religious thought to the Enlightenment project in a series of well-chosen selections and helpful introductions. Lewis outlines the collaborative relationship of science and faith, the social importance of Christian sociability, the role of religious thought in shaping the novel, and the musical and spiritual influence of Methodism. This anthology will be a welcome supplement to courses that emphasize the place of religious thought in the age of restoration, experiment, and reason.

~Misty G. Anderson, Lindsay Young Professor of English, University of Tennessee

Seldom has an anthology of primary documents been as sorely needed, or as expertly edited, as this one. It is impossible to speak with authority about eighteenth-century British culture without understanding how biblical language, Christian values, and competitions among Protestant ideologies permeated that world. Lewis performs a great service with this trove of primary documents, texts once supremely influential but now often neglected. Every scholar and teacher of eighteenth-century studies needs to know the material collected in this invaluable volume.

~Toni Bowers, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania

With substantial and beautifully written introductions to each major section and to individual authors, the whole of the volume is contextualized in light of the significant changes in scholarship on English religion in the last thirty years.

~James E. Bradley, Reading Religion