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Durham E-Theses CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Durham e-Theses Durham E-Theses Political Theology and the Levellers: A discussion of the theological sources of the political thought of the Levellers and of some implications for modern understandings of political liberalism MASON, COLIN How to cite: MASON, COLIN (2009) Political Theology and the Levellers: A discussion of the theological sources of the political thought of the Levellers and of some implications for modern understandings of political liberalism , Durham theses, Durham University. 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Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Political Theology and the Levellers: A discussion of the theological sources of the political thought of the Levellers and of some implications for modern understandings of political liberalism Colin Mason Thesis submitted for Ph.D. degree Durham University Department of Theology and Religion 2009 Abstract of Thesis Thesis Title: “Political Theology and the Levellers: A discussion of the theological sources of the political thought of the Levellers and of some implications for modern understandings of political liberalism” Author: Colin Mason The thesis establishes that the political liberty proposed by the Levellers during the English Civil Wars of the 1640s was derived from a theological doctrine of Christian liberty, rooted in Christology and Ecclesiology, and informed by various legal and philosophical traditions. The work is structured around an examination of the sources of Leveller political thought and a discussion of some implications of this for modern understandings of political liberalism. The thesis argues that a major key to understanding the Levellers is to see the way in which they utilised existing streams of thought, whilst both synthesising and modifying these. These diverse intellectual currents include the English common law, free grace theology, early General Baptist ecclesiology, and natural law and canon law traditions. The Levellers combine these to give rise to the idea that the state should be strictly limited by the individual’s freedom, rights, and contractual consent. The thesis takes great care with the religious sources, in order to avoid a number of current misreadings, especially with respect to theological ideas, ecclesial groupings, and terminology, particularly in relation to Puritanism. The opposition to fundamental elements of Puritanism will be shown to be a hermeneutic key that unlocks our understanding of the Levellers. The research calls into question particular socialist readings of the Levellers. It also implicitly shows that the rejection of liberalism by certain modern Christian thinkers is based on an unnuanced view of political liberalism. Equally, the work provides a corrective to some recent secular accounts of political liberalism that see the historical roots of liberalism in a reaction to the church and religion. Contents Declaration...............................................................................................................4 Acknowledgements..................................................................................................5 Notes on the Text.....................................................................................................6 1. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................7 2. NATURAL LAW AND NATURAL RIGHTS.................................................21 3. SOTERIOLOGY ...............................................................................................96 4. ECCLESIOLOGY ...........................................................................................145 5. THE COMMON LAW....................................................................................195 6. CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................246 Glossary of key names.........................................................................................266 Bibliography ........................................................................................................272 3 Declaration I declare that this thesis is my sole work, and that there have been no contributions from other researchers (save for insights from others where these have been recognised in the footnotes). This thesis represents new material and has not previously been published (save for quotations from the works of other authors); nor has it previously been submitted for a degree at this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any format, including electronic and the Internet, without the author’s prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. 4 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisors at Durham University, Dr Christopher Insole and Prof Alec Ryrie, and to Dr Laurence Hemming who first accepted my proposed research at Heythrop College. I remain indebted, above all, to Dr Insole for his detailed guidance and support throughout the research for this thesis and during the course of its write-up. He has helped me to look more widely than I would have done, and has enabled me to avoid a number of errors. Many of the ideas contained in this work owe their genesis to his insights, challenges, and encouragement. I am also grateful to those who provided suggestions early on in the research, especially Dr Meic Pearse and Dr Andrew Bradstock. At a personal level, I owe much to the supportive work and help of Nigel Pettinger and Rev Roy Dorey. The following have provided particular assistance during the course of this work: Durham University Library, Heythrop College Library, and the British Library, as well as the online services EEBO (Early English Books Online) and JSTOR. 5 Notes on the Text In the quotations from the Leveller primary source material, the thesis keeps to the original seventeenth-century language, spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalisation and italicisation. The only exceptions to this are that the case of the first character of the first word of a quote is sometimes changed where this aids the reader, and the punctuation at the end of a quote is sometimes changed where it seems appropriate. Quotations from works in foreign languages (for example, from Augustine, the scholastics, Luther, Calvin, and the Anabaptists) are from published translations in the English language. Abbreviations in the footnotes are as per the definitions in the first page of the Bibliography. 6 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the overall thesis The central tenet of the thesis is that the political liberty proposed by the Levellers during the English Civil Wars of the 1640s was derived from a theological doctrine of Christian liberty, informed by common law, natural law, and canon law traditions. The thesis is structured around an examination of the theological sources of the political philosophy of the Levellers on the one hand, and a discussion of some implications of this for modern understandings of political liberalism, on the other. The Levellers are treated as a theological prism which draws together varying strands of prior historical thought, blending as well as changing those strands, and we will look at how these shed light on some present questions of political theology and philosophy. We will see that the Leveller conception of political liberty is derived from their theological understanding of liberty – that is, from a doctrine of Christian liberty in which we all have liberty because all people are created by God, in the image of God, with God-given natural rights; people are made free in Christ through freely given grace; and belief in God is a voluntary matter, as is membership of a church. In this thesis, it is argued that a major key to understanding the Levellers is to see the way in which they utilised existing streams of thought, whilst both synthesising those streams and modifying important elements of them. These diverse intellectual currents include the English common law tradition of individual liberties, free grace theology, early General Baptist ecclesiology, and an understanding of rights and consent developed within natural law and canon law traditions. The Levellers combine these to give rise to the idea that the state should be strictly limited by the individual’s freedom, rights, and explicit ongoing consent. The search to understand the intellectual sources of their ideas is made that much more difficult by the fact that although the Levellers do sometimes explicitly cite authors and texts in their tracts, it is the case that they also frequently do not. Throughout the thesis I therefore try to be careful to distinguish between
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