<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Amidst the politically-charged climate of seventeenth-century England, a small, but influential makeshift group of Baptist divines developed an eschatological system that both encouraged their congregations to greater holiness and threatened the very existence of the proto-denomination. Even as most of the nascent group of dissenting congregations known as Baptists sought acceptance by the more mainstream dissent, those divines who accepted this particular form of millenarianism garnered unwanted attention from the authorities as they pressed remarkably close to the line of radical dissidence. Three of those Baptist divines—Vavasor Powell, Hanserd Knollys, and Benjamin Keach—provide helpful insights both into the range of millenarianism adopted by this group of Baptists and into the legitimacy of the charges of radicalism. This article examines the published works of these three ministers, comparing their visions for the eschatological future and analyzing the charges of radicalism placed against them by their contemporaries.</p></abstract>

Amidst the politically-charged climate of seventeenth-century England, a small, but influential makeshift group of Baptist divines developed an eschatological system that both encouraged their congregations to greater holiness and threatened the very existence of the proto-denomination. Even as most of the nascent group of dissenting congregations known as Baptists sought acceptance by the more mainstream dissent, those divines who accepted this particular form of millenarianism garnered unwanted attention from the authorities as they pressed remarkably close to the line of radical dissidence. Three of those Baptist divines—Vavasor Powell, Hanserd Knollys, and Benjamin Keach—provide helpful insights both into the range of millenarianism adopted by this group of Baptists and into the legitimacy of the charges of radicalism. This article examines the published works of these three ministers, comparing their visions for the eschatological future and analyzing the charges of radicalism placed against them by their contemporaries.

Radical, Baptist Eschatology: The Eschatological Vision of Vavasor Powell, Hanserd Knollys, and Benjamin Keach

Perichoresis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Amidst the politically-charged climate of seventeenth-century England, a small, but influential makeshift group of Baptist divines developed an eschatological...

Radical, Baptist Eschatology: The Eschatological Vision of Vavasor Powell, Hanserd Knollys, and Benjamin Keach

Published Online: Jun 26, 2019

Page range: 75 - 93

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/perc-2019-0018

Keywords
Deification, English Baptists, Millenarianism, Powell, Knollys, Keach

© 2019 Jonathan Arnold, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Radical, Baptist Eschatology: The Eschatological Vision of Vavasor Powell, Hanserd Knollys, and Benjamin Keach

Published Online: Jun 26, 2019

Page range: 75 - 93

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/perc-2019-0018

KeywordsDeification, English Baptists, Millenarianism, Powell, Knollys, Keach

© 2019 Jonathan Arnold, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Deification, English Baptists, Millenarianism, Powell, Knollys, Keach