Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries

Rufus M. Jones traces a current of the Reformation that placed inward religious experience at the centre of Christian life. His historical study connects the ideas of sixteenth and seventeenth century reformers with the background of early Quakerism. Chapters examine figures including Hans Denck, Sebastian Franck and Jacob Boehme, alongside English thinkers and spiritual poets. The introduction considers how Christian writers have understood the life of the Spirit.

Boehme receives close attention as both a thinker and a man working under religious opposition. Jones describes the friends who encouraged his writing, the circulation of his manuscripts and his growing confidence in his message. This combination of individual lives and the history of ideas makes the book useful for readers interested in mysticism, religious reform and the roots of Quaker belief. It also shows how personal conviction could bring a lay writer into conflict with established theologians.