Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology

This volume argues that the Fourth Gospel and First Epistle of Saint John the Evangelist were so influential during the early modern period in England as to share with Pauline theology pride of place as leading apostolic texts on matters Christological, sacramental, pneumatological and political. It argues further that, in several instances, Johannine theology is more central than both Pauline theology and the Synoptic theology of Matthew, Mark and Luke, particularly with regard to early modern polemicising on the Trinity, distinctions between agape and eros and the ideologies of radical dissent, especially the 17th-century antinomian challenge of free grace to traditional Puritan Pietism.