Laurie Throness
Ashgate
Hardback
390
2008
This book examines the role of protestant theology on the penal system of eighteenth-century England. Whilst modern historians of crime admit that religion played an important role in the conception and practice of justice relatively little work has been undertaken to asses just how these two pillars of early modern society interacted. At the core of this study is an examination of the theological background to the Penitentiary Act of 1779 a deeply theological piece of legislation that conflated punishment and hard labour with the ability to redeem sinners. Whereas Catholic theology stressed the role of purgatory after death this study looks at how the Church of England fostered a sense of earthly purgatory for those convicted by the criminal justice system.Of interest to historians and theologians this book provides a fascinating glimpse at the importance of religion and particularly Protestantism as understood and preached by the Church of England to the politics and social policy of the eighteenth-century British state.
Ashgate
Hardback
390
2008
This book examines the role of protestant theology on the penal system of eighteenth-century England. Whilst modern historians of crime admit that religion played an important role in the conception and practice of justice relatively little work has been undertaken to asses just how these two pillars of early modern society interacted. At the core of this study is an examination of the theological background to the Penitentiary Act of 1779 a deeply theological piece of legislation that conflated punishment and hard labour with the ability to redeem sinners. Whereas Catholic theology stressed the role of purgatory after death this study looks at how the Church of England fostered a sense of earthly purgatory for those convicted by the criminal justice system.Of interest to historians and theologians this book provides a fascinating glimpse at the importance of religion and particularly Protestantism as understood and preached by the Church of England to the politics and social policy of the eighteenth-century British state.