Ideas and Practices of Religious Toleration and Intolerance in Seventeenth-Century England

这一研究项目的目的是审查世纪中期英国关于宗教容忍和/或不容忍的政治、神学和知识谈判的复杂过程。重点是修改传统的“清教徒革命”的历史编纂，这种历史编纂描绘了现代宽容主义思想的逐步发展，而不是不宽容的前现代社会。这项研究表明，“容忍”的概念及其反对意见都是英格兰和苏格兰两个王国的议会和教会之间，或通信、请愿书、布道和小册子等不同沟通渠道之间各种谈判的产物。

The aim of this research project was to examine the complex processes in which political, theological and intellectual negotiations about religious toleration and/or intolerance evolved in mid-seventeenth century England. The emphasis was on revising the conventional historiography of "Puritan revolution" which had pictured a progressive development of modern tolerationist ideas as opposed to intolerant pre-modern sociability. The study has revealed that both the idea of "toleration" and its opposition emerged as products of various negotiations, between parliaments and churches of the two kingdoms--England and Scotland--, or between different channels of communication such as correspondence, petitions, sermons and pamphlets.