The Evolution of Early Stuart Conformist Thought: The Liturgical Theology of John Donne

Abstract

An examination of John Donne's ambiguous understanding of prayer book worship and of the ideas he drew from both John Whitgift and Richard Hooker brings into relief a liturgical theology in the process of evolution. If Donne can be recognized as representative of conformists in the early Stuart church, the evolutionary nature of his theology allows for a less sharp and less dramatic portrait of the rise of ritualism in the 1620s and, perhaps, a different way of looking at the origins of Laudianism.