Cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to browse this repository, you give consent for essential cookies to be used. You can read more about our Privacy and Cookie Policy.


Durham e-Theses
You are in:

A case study of Lawrence Clarkson (1615-1667)

Dreher, Ute (2000) A case study of Lawrence Clarkson (1615-1667). Masters thesis, Durham University.

[img]
Preview
PDF
4Mb

Abstract

As the title indicates, my thesis is a case study of the religious radical Lawrence Clarkson (1615-1667). Chapter One, 'Lawrence Clarkson (1615-1667): Journeys of a Religious Radical' places Clarkson's biography in its socio-historical context. With his autobiography The Lost Sheep Found (1660) as a guide book, it follows him on his spiritual and geographical journeys through seven "churches" or religious groups from 1630 to 1660 - notably Antinomians, Baptists, Seekers and Ranters. It takes a close look at the fellow-radicals he met on the way and the controversies he got involved in, and thus integrates him in the religious landscape of mid-l7th-century England. In this chapter will also be found discussions of his early religious tracts. The focus of Chapter Two, 'The Captain of the Rant and the Learned Dr. Crisp: A Single Eye and Tobias Crisp's Sermons’, is theological. Based on a close textual comparison, and scriptural "dissection", of Tobias Crisp’s sermons and Clarkson's Ranter tract A Single Eye, it explores Crisp's influence on Clarkson with regard to Clarkson's conceptions of sin and the elect, his celebration of practical antinomianism, and his mysticism, ft also places A Single Eye in the context of other Ranter writings. The in-depth examination of the theological relationship between Clarkson and Crisp constitutes a major contribution to the study of radical religion in the mid-17th century. My thesis reveals Clarkson as a much more theologically sophisticated and significant figure than has hitherto been acknowledged. His importance does not only he in his identity as a particularly flamboyant Ranter prophet, but extends to the Antinomian movement as a whole. Furthermore, as a religious "traveller", he offers us some unique insights into the sectarian milieux of mid-17lh-century England.

Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Award:Master of Arts
Thesis Date:2000
Copyright:Copyright of this thesis is held by the author
Deposited On:01 Aug 2012 11:46

Social bookmarking: del.icio.usConnoteaBibSonomyCiteULikeFacebookTwitter