RT Article
T1 Winstanley: A Case for the Man as He Said He Was
JF The journal of ecclesiastical history
VO 28
IS 1
SP 57
OP 75
A1 Mulligan, Lotte
A1 Graham, John K.
A1 Richards, Judith
LA English
PB Cambridge Univ. Press
YR 1977
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1784743720
AB The publication of Christopher Hill's Winstanley: The Law of Freedom and Other Writings was an exciting event for students of mid-seventeenth-century England. It provides a readily available edition of Winstanley's most important writings. To these Hill offers a compelling introduction which has much to stimulate and interest, but in his interpretation of Winstanley there are also invitations to misunderstanding. Ultimately, Hill's interest in Winstanley arises from his perception of the seventeenth-century writer as ‘modern’ and, if another recent article is any guide, this continues to be the common factor for studies of Winstanley. It is the purpose of this article to argue that this ‘modern’ view of Winstanley misconstrues his intellectual sources and historical significance by minimising the part theology played in his theories of social and moral change. The result of such a view is to misrepresent Winstanley's meaning, and his relationship to his contemporary world.
DO 10.1017/S0022046900042482