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'Should reason or revelation have priority in matters of faith? What is the proper relationship between them? Christopher Walker explores these issues in a lively and trenchant study of the doctrine of the Trinity, which was established in the fourth century as a central tenet of Christian 'orthodoxy'. Scholarly, accessible, and ranging from the Early Fathers to the present day, the book offers a searching examination of the issue in the continental Reformation, the civil wars, and the late seventeenth century. The 1690s witnessed a fierce pamphlet war between Unitarians and champions of Trinitarian orthodoxy, who asserted a creed they proved signally unable to define satisfactorily, even to their own party. Bringing together history, philosophy and theology, Walker shows that while the Trinitarians won the war, thanks to the backing of the state, they had lost the argument.' - Bernard Capp, FBA, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Warwick 'What immediately strikes one about this book is the lucidity of its prose, the originality of its thesis and the breadth of its scope. A model of what a historical monograph should be, it not only challenges and enlarges our thinking about the past, but helps us better understand the present. At a time when religious belief is often simplistically portrayed as detached from ""reason"", Walker shows how historically the two have not been separate, and that ""faith"" has nothing to fear from '""reason"". An indispensable resource for all with an interest in the history of ideas: a real tour de force!' - Andrew Bradstock, Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago 'This is a wide-ranging, thoughtful study, which features some edgy, provocative argument. It contains useful food for thought in making intellectual links between seventeenth-century Unitarianism and Islam. The author does a good job in showing how different threads of religious thought in Europe influenced English thinkers and theologians. Men as diverse as Newton, Tillotson and John Bidle disputed, discussed and frequently suffered as they laboured to explore their religious faith through the exercise of reason. In exploring the endeavours of such men and women, and their efforts to prove that reason and religion were not mutually incompatible in the later seventeenth century, this study makes a contribution to our understanding of the evolution of English concepts of toleration and fairness.' - David J Appleby, Lecturer in Early Modern History, University of Nottingham

'Should reason or revelation have priority in matters of faith? What is the proper relationship between them? Christopher Walker explores these issues in a lively and trenchant study of the doctrine of the Trinity, which was established in the fourth century as a central tenet of Christian 'orthodoxy'. Scholarly, accessible, and ranging from the Early Fathers to the present day, the book offers a searching examination of the issue in the continental Reformation, the civil wars, and the late seventeenth century. The 1690s witnessed a fierce pamphlet war between Unitarians and champions of Trinitarian orthodoxy, who asserted a creed they proved signally unable to define satisfactorily, even to their own party. Bringing together history, philosophy and theology, Walker shows that while the Trinitarians won the war, thanks to the backing of the state, they had lost the argument.' - Bernard Capp, FBA, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Warwick 'What immediately strikes one about this book is the lucidity of its prose, the originality of its thesis and the breadth of its scope. A model of what a historical monograph should be, it not only challenges and enlarges our thinking about the past, but helps us better understand the present. At a time when religious belief is often simplistically portrayed as detached from reason , Walker shows how historically the two have not been separate, and that faith has nothing to fear from ' reason . An indispensable resource for all with an interest in the history of ideas: a real tour de force!' - Andrew Bradstock, Howard Paterson Professor of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago 'This is a wide-ranging, thoughtful study, which features some edgy, provocative argument. It contains useful food for thought in making intellectual links between seventeenth-century Unitarianism and Islam. The author does a good job in showing how different threads of religious thought in Europe influenced English thinkers and theologians. Men as diverse as Newton, Tillotson and John Bidle disputed, discussed and frequently suffered as they laboured to explore their religious faith through the exercise of reason. In exploring the endeavours of such men and women, and their efforts to prove that reason and religion were not mutually incompatible in the later seventeenth century, this study makes a contribution to our understanding of the evolution of English concepts of toleration and fairness.' - David J Appleby, Lecturer in Early Modern History, University of Nottingham

Author Information

Christopher J. Walker was educated at Lancing College and the University of Oxford. A former editor at Penguin Books, he won a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to write Armenia:The Survival of a Nation (1980 and 1990). This was followed by Visions of Ararat: Writings on Armenia (I.B.Tauris, 1997 and 2005), Oliver Baldwin: A Life of Dissent (2003) and Islam and the West: A Dissonant Harmony of Civilizations (2005). He has also contributed to the prestigious UCLA conferenceseries, Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, edited by Richard G. Hovannisian

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