Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
". . . Como deserves the high praise for completing a project that some would have thought impossible."H-Net Books
Review
"This is a marvelous and much-needed book: impressively researched, engaging and demanding, finely nuanced and robustly argued."American Historical Review
Review
"Using antinomianism as his vehicle, he has reconstructed the complex and symbiotic relationship between radical and mainstream Puritanism and established the presence of its legacy in late-seventeenth-century England. This ambitious project is a touchstone for future work in the field of English Puritanism."Renaissance Quarterly
Review
"Those who thought we knew all there was to know abot the doctrinal subtleties of the iron-souled band that turned England upside down and conquered a corner of the New World have some reading yet to do. On the required list...belongs Como's magisterial new book on the 'seething sectarian underworld' of mystics, familists, grindletonians, and other antinomans that existed in 'parasitic relationship' to mainstream Puritanism in the two decades leading up to the Civil War." Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
“With enormous ingenuity, diligence and archival skill, Como provides a new and compelling explanation of the origins of sectarian radicalism.”—Sears McGee, University of California, Santa Barbara
“. . . Como deserves the high praise for completing a project that some would have thought impossible.”—H-Net Books
About the Author
With enormous ingenuity, diligence and archival skill, Como provides a new and compelling explanation of the origins of sectarian radicalism.”Sears McGee, University of California, Santa Barbara. . . Como deserves the high praise for completing a project that some would have thought impossible.”H-Net BooksThis is a marvelous and much-needed book: impressively researched, engaging and demanding, finely nuanced and robustly argued.”American Historical Review"Using antinomianism as his vehicle, he has reconstructed the complex and symbiotic relationship between radical and mainstream Puritanism and established the presence of its legacy in late-seventeenth-century England. This ambitious project is a touchstone for future work in the field of English Puritanism."Renaissance QuarterlyThose who thought we knew all there was to know abot the doctrinal subtleties of the iron-souled band that turned England upside down and conquered a corner of the New World have some reading yet to do. On the required list...belongs Comos magisterial new book on the seething sectarian underworld of mystics, familists, grindletonians, and other antinomans that existed in parasitic relationship to mainstream Puritanism in the two decades leading up to the Civil War.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History