The Power of Scripture

In England, from the Reformation era to the outbreak of the Civil War, religious authority contributed to popular political discourse in ways that significantly shaped the legitimacy of the monarchy as a form of rule as well as the monarch’s ability to act politically. The Power of Scripture casts aside parochial conceptualizations of that authority’s origins and explores the far-reaching consequences of political biblicism. It shows how arguments, narratives, and norms taken from Biblical scripture not only directly contributed to national religious politics but also left lasting effects on the socio-political development of Stuart England.

Andreas Pečar is Professor of Early Modern History at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, where he is Chair of the ‘Enlightenment—Religion—Knowledge’ research cluster and President of the Historical Society of Saxony-Anhalt. He has published on the imperial court in Vienna; political biblicism in England and Scotland; the Enlightenment and its relationship to modernity (with Damien Tricoire); Frederick the Great as author and philosopher; and recently (with Marianne Taatz-Jacobi) on the University of Halle’s historical links with the Prussian government.

Praise for the German Edition:
“A timely contribution to the debate about the relationship of politics and religion in the early modern period… Pečar’s book is an extremely useful source of reference for historians of early modern religious and political thought.” • History of European Ideas

“The study is written in an engaging way, argues clearly at all times, and vividly depicts the intricate relationship between religious and political thinking, speaking and acting in the English confessional age." • H-Soz-u-Kult