STUDIES IN ENGLISH DISSENT
By Dr. Geoffrey F. Nuttall
Quinta Press. 362 pages. £30.00
ISBN 1 897856 14 8
Dr. Geoffrey Nuttall (now in his 90s) is the doyen of Non-conformist historians. This collection of 16 essays, originally published in journals or as pamphlets, makes available material not easily accessible outside academic libraries.
He ranges over the Non-conformity of the 16th and 17th centuries; examines Puritan and Quaker mysticism; probes the origins of Hyper-Calvinism, or, as he would prefer to say, High Calvinism. Institutions, creeds and Christian experience all come in for a penetrating examination. Dr. Nuttall has been a meticulous researcher and shows great skill in travelling along the networks which link men and institutions. The last lecture, on the Library of New College, London, may at first seem to be little more than a catalogue, but it yields important information about the books which have influenced students and their teachers over the last 300 years. If that address appears dry, his Christocentric essay 'The Heart of The Pilgrim's Progress' certainly is not.
