The Crisis of the English Mind, 1650-1750

Places the central intellectual and religious debates of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England in a refreshing transnational perspective. Between 1650 and 1750 the intellectual and religious landscape of England underwent profound transformations, shaped by an unprecedented engagement with Dutch and French books and ideas. Works by Descartes, Grotius, Spinoza, Bayle and others introduced new modes of thought, prompting English thinkers to reimagine the relationship between scripture, reaso