Seeing Things Their Way: Intellectual History and the Return of Religion

276 Pages·2009·2.511 MB·English

by  Alister Chapman, John Coffey, Brad S. Gregory

Seeing Things Their Way Seeing Things
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Intellectual History and the Return of Religion aa
edited by alister Chapman, John Coffey, and Brad S. Gregory ndpm T h e i r W ay

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“ This terrific collection of essays will give all intellectual historians a lot to ro
think about. With learning, courtesy, and precision, the authors make clear yff
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that historians of early modern and modern thought, in Britain, europe, and ,
america, need to pay far more attention than they have to religious ideas
and categories. at the same time, though, they show that historians of ideas
can provide historians of theology with important methodological lessons.”
—Anthony Grafton, Princeton University
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“S eeing Things Their Way is a unique and important volume that explores and
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applies in the field of religious thought the methodology of intellectual history
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pioneered by Quentin Skinner. This rich interdisciplinary collection not only
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addresses for the first time at book length the strengths, weaknesses, and
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implications of this approach within the context of the history of religious ideas,
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but also offers some exemplary exercises in the good practice of that art. it will

appeal to historians of political thought and specialists in intellectual history
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as well as to scholars interested in the place and treatment of religious ideas in
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social history.” —Richard Rex, Queens’ College, University of Cambridge
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“ There is no greater service that the historian can provide to our own
understanding of ourselves in time and place than to reconstruct how past g
societies understood themselves in time and place. When historians fail to s
include a clear analysis of how the most articulate of our forebears struggled to
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locate God and his immanence into their studies of themselves and the societies
they sought to build, those same historians impoverish our understanding of
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how our pasts inform our present and how and at what cost (if any) we exclude
God from our sense of what makes a just society. This book teaches us that, and
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much more.” —John Morrill, University of Cambridge
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Contributors: anna Sapir abulafia, Willem J. van asselt, David W. Bebbington,
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James e. Bradley, alister Chapman, John Coffey, Brad S. Gregory, howard hotson,
richard a. Muller, and Mark a. Noll.

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ALISTER CHAPMAN is assistant professor of history at Westmont College.
JOHN COFFEY is professor of early modern history at the University of Leicester.
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BRAD S. GREGORY is Dorothy G. Griffin associate Professor of early Modern
Intellectual History and the
history at the University of Notre Dame. y
University of Notre Dame Press Return of Religion
Notre Dame, iN 46556
ISBN-13:978-0-268-02298-3
undpress.nd.edu
ISBN-10:0-268-02298-4
Cover art: Salvadore Dali (Spanish, 1904–1989) Madonna of Port Lligat, 9 0 0 0 0
1949. Oil on canvas, 19 1/2 x 15 1/16”. Gift of Mr. & Mrs. ira haupt.
edited by
Collection of the haggerty Museum of art, Marquette University,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
9 78026 8 022983 alister Chapman, John Coffey, and Brad S. Gregory
Cover design: Gore Studio, inc.
Chapman CVR MECH2.indd 1 8/19/09 2:41:33 PM
Seeing Things
Their Way

Seeing Things
Their Way
intellectual history
and the return of religion
edited by
Alister Chapman, John Coffey,
and Brad S. Gregory
University of notre Dame Press notre Dame, inDiana
Copyright © 2009 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Seeing things their way : intellectual history and the return of religion /
edited by Alister Chapman, John Coffey, and Brad S. Gregory.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-268-02298-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-268-02298-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Religion—History. 2. Intellectual life—History. I. Chapman, Alister.
II. Coffey, John, 1969– III. Gregory, Brad S. (Brad Stephan), 1963–
BL237.S44 2009
200.9—dc22
2009027700
∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 Introduction: Intellectual History and the Return
of Religion 1
john coffey and alister chapman
2 Can We “See Things Their Way”? Should We Try? 24
brad s. gregory
3 Quentin Skinner and the Religious Dimension
of Early Modern Political Thought 46
john coffey
4 “Sie Stinken Beide,” or How to Use Medieval
Christian-Jewish Disputational Material 75
anna sapir abulafia
5 Anti-Semitism, Philo-Semitism, Apocalypticism,
and Millenarianism in Early Modern Europe:
A Case Study and Some Methodological Reflections 91
howard hotson
6 Reflections on Persistent Whiggism and Its Antidotes in
the Study of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century
Intellectual History 134
richard a. muller
vi Contents
7 Scholasticism Revisited: Methodological Reflections on
the Study of Seventeenth-century Reformed Thought 154
willem j. van asselt
8 The Changing Shape of Religious Ideas in
Enlightened England 175
james e. bradley
9 British Methodological Pointers for Writing a History
of Theology in America 202
mark a. noll
10 Intellectual History and Religion in Modern Britain 226
alister chapman
11 Response: The History of Ideas and the Study
of Religion 240
david w. bebbington
Contributors 258
Index 261
Acknowledgments
The editors would like to thank the managers of the George
Macaulay Trevelyan Fund of Cambridge University for their finan-
cial support of this project; Eugenio Biagini, Richard Rex, Johathan
Riley-Smith, Reiner Smolinski, and Carl Trueman for their critical and
constructive feedback on earlier versions of these chapters; Barbara
Hanrahan at the University of Notre Dame Press for patiently steering
this book to publication; and Grace Sollé for her editorial assistance.
Alister Chapman, Westmont College
John Coffey, University of Leicester
Brad S. Gregory, University of Notre Dame
vii

Introduction: Intellectual History and
1
the Return of Religion
john coffey and alister chapman
Religious history and intellectual history are two of the most
dynamic fields of contemporary historical inquiry. Yet historians of
ideas and historians of religion often plough separate furrows, paying
little attention to each other’s work. This book calls for a more fruitful
interaction between the two fields. It urges intellectual historians to ex-
plore the religious dimension of ideas and commends the methods of
intellectual history to historians of religion. It also seeks to model good
practice and encourage further research. The introduction locates our
project in relation to contemporary historiography, and outlines the op-
portunities and pitfalls that lie before students of religious thought.
THe pRIoRITIeS of InTelleCTu Al HISToRy
Seeing Things Their Way is a title taken from Quentin Skinner, one of
the leading figures in the “Cambridge School” of intellectual historians.1
Alongside J. G. A. Pocock and John Dunn, Skinner carved out his own
methodology in opposition to dominant rival schools in the 1960s.2 On
the one hand, there was the materialist reductionism of Marxist and
Namierite historians, who saw politics in terms of a struggle for power
between different classes or interests, and reduced ideas to “ideology.”
1