Aspects of the public debate about praying in early modern England: printed sources in English for the Anglican theology of prayer 1641 -1700

Abstract

This thesis investigates Anglican understandings of prayer, as expressed in printed material originating from the years 1641-1700. Besides surveying the range of comment and teaching, this enquiry gathers the concerns of the period into categories within which historical and theological reflection reveal the vitality and the shortcomings of the parochial life of the Church of England. The development of the theology of prayer in the Anglican Church throughout this era is charted and analysed. The life of the Church of England is presented as an amalgam of official requirements and local custom. It is shown that far from Anglican worship being stereotypical, the actual reality of congregational life was of great variety across the parishes. The interpenetration of formal and popular culture in the life of the local parish church is presented in the enthusiasm for both the Book of Common Prayer and the Sternhold and Hopkins Metrical Psalter. The concern of the Church of England for the devotional lives of the population is shown to have reached beyond the doors of the churches. Support, teaching and advice was provided on private and family prayer. It is emphasised that family and private prayer were regarded as being obligatory. After the turmoil of the Civil War and Interregnum, the theological instinct of the Church of England was for a renewed society anchored in the devotional experience of the presence of God. The dimensions of the congregational apprehension of the divine presence are investigated within the constructs of a posited aural community. A model is suggested by which it could have been regarded that the interweaving of so many elements of prayer and worship on earth were bound up with the perceived offering of eternal praise in heaven.