The Critique of Certitude in Seventeenth-Century England

What is it about?

One of the most important developments in early Stuart religious culture was the general decline in “exegetical optimism” that it witnessed, the fading conviction in the simplicity of the bible. Tracing major examples of this development, this chapter compares Lancelot Andrewes’ and Richard Sibbes’ sermons on the “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16) with John Calvin’s discussions of the same text. In doing so, Kuchar shows how Herbert’s contemporaries often qualified claims to assurance through faith alone with an emphasis on assurance through love, thereby qualifying strong claims to personal certainty with an emphasis on wonder and mystery. Parallel with this development in biblical hermeneutics was a developing awareness that exaggerated expectations of assurance often inadvertently result in despair.

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