Permanent Revolution : The Reformation and the Illiberal Roots of Liberalism

**How did the Reformation, which initially promoted decidedly illiberal positions, end up laying the groundwork for Western liberalism?**The English Reformation began as an evangelical movement driven by an unyielding belief in predestination, intolerance, stringent literalism, political quietism, and destructive iconoclasm. Yet by 1688, this illiberal early modern upheaval would deliver the foundations of liberalism: free will, liberty of conscience, religious toleration, readerly freedom, constitutionalism, and aesthetic liberty. How did a movement with such illiberal beginnings lay the groundwork for the Enlightenment? James Simpson provocatively rewrites the history of liberalism and uncovers its unexpected debt to evangelical religion.Sixteenth-century Protestantism ushered in a culture of permanent revolution, ceaselessly repudiating its own prior forms. Its rejection of tradition was divisive, violent, and unsustainable. The proto-liberalism of the later seventeenth century emerged as a cultural package designed to stabilize the social chaos brought about by this evangelical revolution. A brilliant assault on many of our deepest assumptions,__Permanent Revolution__argues that far from being driven by a new strain of secular philosophy, the British Enlightenment is a story of transformation and reversal of the Protestant tradition from within. The gains of liberalism were the unintended results of the violent early Reformation.Today those gains are increasingly under threat, in part because liberals do not understand their own history. They fail to grasp that liberalism is less the secular opponent of religious fundamentalism than its dissident younger sibling, uncertain how to confront its older evangelical competitor. The Proto-liberalism Of The Late Seventeenth Century In England Reverses All The Central Persuasions Of Illiberal Evangelical Religion Of The Early Sixteenth Century. Free-will, Division Of Powers, Non-literalist Biblical Reading, Aesthetics, Theatricality: Each Reverses Cardinal Positions Of Lutheran And Calvinist Religion. How? Permanent Revolution Argues That All Revolutions Take About 150 Years To Settle Down. In The Case Of The Reformation In England, The First Revolution (what Simpson Calls Permanent Revolution) Was Heady And Radical. It Was Also Ultimately Unsustainable. In About 150 Years It Produced Its Opposite, The Second Reformation Which Led To The Enlightenment. In Our Own Times, The Author Says, Liberals Make A Dangerous Mistake When They Do Not Understand That Evangelical Fundamentalists Descend From The Same Parent As Themselves - The Permanent Revolution Of The Early Reformation. The Core Of The Book Is About The English Reformation And The Archive Is Largely Literary. Yet The Political And Intellectual Ramifications Exceed The Remit Of Literary Studies. The Story Of The Proto-enlightenment Narrated Here Is Not A Story Of Secularist Repudiation From Outside. Instead, It Is Primarily A Story Of Transformation And Reversal Of The Protestant Tradition From Within. The Second Reformation (the One That Became The Enlightenment) Is Less A Secularist Opponent Of The First Than Its Dissident Younger Sibling, Driven And Marked, If Not Scarred, By Its Older Evangelical Sibling And Competitor.-- Part I. Religion As Revolution: Revolutionary Religion -- Permanently Revolutionary Religion -- Part Ii. Working Modernity's Despair: Modernizing Despair -- Modernizing Despair: Lyric And Narrative Entrapment -- Modernizing Despair's Epic Non-escape -- Part Iii. Sincerity And Hypocrisy: Pre-modern And Henrician Hypocrisy -- The Revolutionary Hypocrite: Elizabethan Hypocrisy -- Managing Hypocrisy?: Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, 1689 -- Part Iv. Breaking Idols: Liberating Iconoclasm -- Saving Images And The Calvinist Hammer -- One Last Iconoclastic Push? -- Part V. Theater, Magic, Sacrament: Religion, Dramicide, And The Rise Of Magic -- Enemies Of The Revolution: Magic And Theater -- Last Judgements: Stage Managing The Magic -- Part Vi. Managing Scripture: Scripture: Institutions, Interpretation, And Violence -- Private Scriptural Anguish -- Escaping Literalism's Trap -- Part Vii. Liberty And Liberties: Liberty Taking Liberties. James Simpson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. How did the Reformation, which initially promoted decidedly illiberal positions, end up laying the groundwork for Western liberalism? The English Reformation began as an evangelical movement driven by an unyielding belief in predestination, intolerance, stringent literalism, political quietism, and destructive iconoclasm. Yet by 1688, this illiberal early modern upheaval would deliver the foundations of liberalism: free will, liberty of conscience, religious toleration, readerly freedom, constitutionalism, and aesthetic liberty. How did a movement with such illiberal beginnings lay the groundwork for the Enlightenment? James Simpson provocatively rewrites the history of liberalism and uncovers its unexpected debt to evangelical religion. Sixteenth-century Protestantism ushered in a culture of permanent revolution, ceaselessly repudiating its own prior forms. Its rejection of tradition was divisive, violent, and unsustainable. The proto-liberalism of the later seventeenth century emerged as a cultural package designed to stabilize the social chaos brought about by this evangelical revolution. A brilliant assault on many of our deepest assumptions, Permanent Revolution argues that far from being driven by a new strain of secular philosophy, the British Enlightenment is a story of transformation and reversal of the Protestant tradition from within. The gains of liberalism were the unintended results of the violent early Reformation. Today those gains are increasingly under threat, in part because liberals do not understand their own history. They fail to grasp that liberalism is less the secular opponent of religious fundamentalism than its dissident younger sibling, uncertain how to confront its older evangelical competitor. How did the English Reformation, with its illiberal, intolerant beginnings, lay the groundwork for the Enlightenment—free will, liberty of conscience, religious toleration, constitutionalism, and all the rest? In his provocative rewriting of the history of liberalism, James Simpson uncovers its unexpected debt to Protestant evangelicalism.