Blown by the Spirit : Puritanism and the Emergence of an Antinomian Underground in Pre-Civil-War England

__Blown by the Spirit__ traces the story of the Antinomians, the most important puritan radical group of the English civil war. Most historians have been skeptical about the existence of this group, or any group like it. This book provides proof of the existence of the Antinomians as well as the important role they played in the pre-history of the English civil-war. This study explores the intersection of politics, religious thought, and religious culture in pre-revolutionary England, using hitherto unknown or overlooked manuscripts and printed material to reconstruct and contextualize a forgotten but highly significant antinomian religious subculture that evolved at the margins of the early seventeenth-century puritan community. By reconstructing this story, Blown by the Spirit offers a major revision of current understanding of Puritanism and the puritan community. In the process, the author illuminates the obscure and tangled question of the origins of civil-war radicalism, thereby helping to explain the course, consequences, and ultimate failure of the English revolution.