Overview

The Reformed Conformity that flourished within the Early Stuart English Church was a rich, vibrant, and distinctive theological tradition that has never before been studied in its own right. While scholars have observed how Reformed Conformists clashed with Laudians and Puritans alike, no sustained academic study of their teaching on grace and their attitude to the Church has yet been undertaken, despite the centrality of these topics to Early Stuart theological controversy. This ground-breaking monograph recovers this essential strand of Early Stuart Christian identity. It examines and analyses the teachings and writings of ten prominent theologians, all of whom made significant contributions to the debates that arose within the Church of England during the reigns of James I and Charles I and all of whom combined loyalty to orthodox Reformed teaching on grace and salvation with a commitment to the established polity of the English Church. The study makes the case for the coherence of their theological vision by underlining the connections that these Reformed Conformists made between their teaching on grace and their approach to Church order and liturgy. By engaging with a robust and influential theological tradition that was neither puritan nor Laudian, Grace and Conformity significantly enriches our account of the Early Stuart Church and contributes to the ongoing scholarly reappraisal of the wider Reformed tradition. It builds on the resurgence of academic interest in British soteriological discussion, and uses that discussion, as previous studies have not, to gain valuable new insights into Early Stuart ecclesiology.

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9780190084332

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With forensic elegance, Stephen Hampton's sharply-focused study not only enriches our understanding of the early Stuart Church of England, but also makes a major contribution to understanding of the Reformed Protestant tradition across Europe. * Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor Emeritus of the History of the Church, University of Oxford * Grace and Conformity debunks lingering caricatures of conformity. Hampton stretches our view of the Church of England and the Reformed tradition. He realigns the configuration of ecclesiastical and theological developments in pre-Civil-War England. No longer can we assume that robust defenses of episcopacy and the Church of England's liturgy were mutually exclusive with Reformed soteriology. * Polly Ha, Associate Professor, Duke Divinity School * This splendid book fills a yawning gap in current scholarship on religion in early Stuart England. It is the first sustained and theologically-informed investigation of the mainstream 'Calvinist conformist' (or 'Reformed conformist' as is preferred here) position DS in theology, piety and ecclesiology * and is a triumph of original and penetrating scholarship. It is exemplary in the care, erudition, clarity and precision of its analysis and should be required reading for anyone working on the early Stuart church and on English Protestantism more broadly. The positions so skillfully delineated in this study should become a basic point of reference for all future historians who seek to understand and categorize the ideas of any early modern English divine.Anthony Milton, Professor of History, The University of Sheffield *

This splendid book fills a yawning gap in current scholarship on religion in early Stuart England. It is the first sustained and theologically-informed investigation of the mainstream 'Calvinist conformist' (or 'Reformed conformist' as is preferred here) position - in theology, piety and ecclesiology * and is a triumph of original and penetrating scholarship. It is exemplary in the care, erudition, clarity and precision of its analysis and should be required reading for anyone working on the early Stuart church and on English Protestantism more broadly. The positions so skillfully delineated in this study should become a basic point of reference for all future historians who seek to understand and categorize the ideas of any early modern English divine. * Grace and Conformity debunks lingering caricatures of conformity. Hampton stretches our view of the Church of England and the Reformed tradition. He realigns the configuration of ecclesiastical and theological developments in pre-Civil-War England. No longer can we assume that robust defenses of episcopacy and the Church of England's liturgy were mutually exclusive with Reformed soteriology. * Polly Ha, Associate Professor, Duke Divinity School * With forensic elegance, Stephen Hampton's sharply-focused study not only enriches our understanding of the early Stuart Church of England, but also makes a major contribution to understanding of the Reformed Protestant tradition across Europe. * Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor Emeritus of the History of the Church, University of Oxford *

With forensic elegance, Stephen Hampton's sharply-focused study not only enriches our understanding of the early Stuart Church of England, but also makes a major contribution to understanding of the Reformed Protestant tradition across Europe. * Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor Emeritus of the History of the Church, University of Oxford * Grace and Conformity debunks lingering caricatures of conformity. Hampton stretches our view of the Church of England and the Reformed tradition. He realigns the configuration of ecclesiastical and theological developments in pre-Civil-War England. No longer can we assume that robust defenses of episcopacy and the Church of England's liturgy were mutually exclusive with Reformed soteriology. * Polly Ha, Associate Professor, Duke Divinity School * This splendid book fills a yawning gap in current scholarship on religion in early Stuart England. It is the first sustained and theologically-informed investigation of the mainstream 'Calvinist conformist' (or 'Reformed conformist' as is preferred here) position - in theology, piety and ecclesiology * and is a triumph of original and penetrating scholarship. It is exemplary in the care, erudition, clarity and precision of its analysis and should be required reading for anyone working on the early Stuart church and on English Protestantism more broadly. The positions so skillfully delineated in this study should become a basic point of reference for all future historians who seek to understand and categorize the ideas of any early modern English divine. *

With forensic elegance, Stephen Hampton's sharply-focused study not only enriches our understanding of the early Stuart Church of England, but also makes a major contribution to understanding of the Reformed Protestant tradition across Europe. * Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor Emeritus of the History of the Church, University of Oxford * Grace and Conformity debunks lingering caricatures of conformity. Hampton stretches our view of the Church of England and the Reformed tradition. He realigns the configuration of ecclesiastical and theological developments in pre-Civil-War England. No longer can we assume that robust defenses of episcopacy and the Church of England's liturgy were mutually exclusive with Reformed soteriology. * Polly Ha, Associate Professor, Duke Divinity School * This splendid book fills a yawning gap in current scholarship on religion in early Stuart England. It is the first sustained and theologically-informed investigation of the mainstream 'Calvinist conformist' (or 'Reformed conformist' as is preferred here) position – in theology, piety and ecclesiology * and is a triumph of original and penetrating scholarship. It is exemplary in the care, erudition, clarity and precision of its analysis and should be required reading for anyone working on the early Stuart church and on English Protestantism more broadly. The positions so skillfully delineated in this study should become a basic point of reference for all future historians who seek to understand and categorize the ideas of any early modern English divine.Anthony Milton, Professor of History, The University of Sheffield * Hampton's Grace and Conformity is a must-read for all historians of post- Reformation Reformed theology and early modern English religion, and has paved the way for further study of the featured individual theologians as well as various other affiliates of the now much better understood Reformed conformist tradition. * Jake Griesel, Journal Of Ecclesiastical History *

Author Information

Stephen Hampton read Law at Cambridge and Theology at Oxford and was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1997. He was appointed Chaplain of Exeter College, Oxford in 1998, where he undertook his doctoral research. In 2003, he became Senior Tutor of St John's College, Durham. Since 2007, he has served as Dean of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He is the author of Anti-Arminians: the Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles II to George I. He has since focused his research on the Early Stuart Church, publishing a number of articles with the Journal of Ecclesiastical History, the Journal of Theological Studies, The Seventeenth Century and the Calvin Theological Journal.

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