In The English General Baptists of the Seventeenth Century: A Historical and Theological Study, J. Matthew Pinson and Jesse F. Owens offer a dedicated scholarly survey of this understudied, non-Calvinist Baptist movement, tracing its development and thought from 1608 to 1704.
Part One narrates the movement's history--from Thomas Helwys and John Smyth in the radical Puritan milieu of the early 1600s, through growth during the English Civil War, persecution under the restored monarchy, and the theological controversies of the closing decades of the century. Part Two turns to theology, examining the work of the movement's leading preacher-theologians, including Thomas Grantham, whose Christianismus Primitivus (1678) is regarded as the first Baptist systematic theology. Topics include confessional orthodoxy, sola scriptura, sin and salvation, and the gathered church of baptized believers.
Grounded in primary sources and a synthesis of modern scholarship, The English General Baptists of the Seventeenth Century fills a notable gap in Baptist studies and will serve students, professors, pastors, and general readers alike.
