Read more
This is the first modern intellectual biography of the Scottish Covenanters' great theorist Samuel Rutherford (c. 1600-61). The central focus is on Rutherford's political thought and his major treatise, Lex, Rex, written in 1644 as a justification of the Covenanters' resistance to King Charles I. The book demonstrates that while Lex, Rex provided a careful synthesis of natural-law theory and biblical politics, Rutherford's Old Testament vision of a purged and covenanted nation ultimately subverted his commitment to the politics of natural reason. The book also discusses a wide range of other topics, including scholasticism and humanism, Calvinist theology, Presbyterian ecclesiology, Rutherford's close relationships with women and his fervent spirituality. It will therefore be of considerable interest to a range of scholars and students working on Scottish and English history, Calvinism and Puritanism, and early modern political thought.
List of contents
Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Biography; 3. The scholar; 4. The puritan pastor; 5. The reformed theologian; 6. The political theorist; 7. The ecclesiastical statesman; 8. The national prophet; Conclusion: the failure of godly rule; Bibliography of Samuel Rutherford; General bibliography.
About the author
John Coffey is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leicester. He has a particular interest in the rich and complex history of Protestantism in Britain and America and his most recent edited volume is The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume I: The Post-Reformation Era, 1559- 1689 (2020). He was part of a team which published a five-volume critical edition of a major seventeenth-century memoir, Richard Baxter's Reliquiae Baxterianae (1696).
Summary
This is the first modern intellectual biography of the Scottish theologian and political theorist Samuel Rutherford (c. 1600–61). Whose main purpose is to provide a thorough discussion of Rutherford's religious and political ideas, and their role in the ideology of the rebellious Scottish Covenanters.
