Abstract
The Seekers, a supposed sect which flourished in late 1640s England, have generally been neglected by historians, with the exception of Quaker historiography, in which the Seekers play a pivotal but supporting role. This article argues that the Seeker phenomenon is worth attending to in its own right. Perhaps deriving from spiritualist, radical and Dutch Collegiant roots, it also represents the logical outcome of English Baptists and other radicals trying and failing to find ecclesiological certainty, and being driven to the conclusion that no true church exists or (for some Seekers) can exist. The article concludes by examining how the Seeker life was lived, whether as austere, apophatic withdrawal; a veering into libertinism; or by forming provisional communities, communities which did, in some cases, serve as a gateway to Quakerism.
Highlights
The Seekers, a supposed sect which flourished in late 1640s England, have generally been neglected by historians, with the exception of Quaker historiography, in which the Seekers play a pivotal but supporting role
This article argues that the Seeker phenomenon is worth attending to in its own right
There has been a good deal written on the phenomenon as a whole: how a Protestant culture which had formerly kept its disputes within relatively narrow bounds suddenly exploded into such exuberant, radical variety, and how the majority who did not join these religious adventures responded.[1]
Summary
The Seekers, a supposed sect which flourished in late 1640s England, have generally been neglected by historians, with the exception of Quaker historiography, in which the Seekers play a pivotal but supporting role. This article argues that the Seeker phenomenon is worth attending to in its own right. There has been a good deal written on the phenomenon as a whole: how a Protestant culture which had formerly kept its disputes within relatively narrow bounds suddenly exploded into such exuberant, radical variety, and how the majority who did not join these religious adventures responded.[1] And there has been much scholarship on individual sects, whether the enduringly significant, such as the Baptists and the Quakers; the evanescent but eyecatching, such as the Ranters and the Fifth Monarchists; or the small-scale but indisputably fascinating, such as the Diggers and the Muggletonians.
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