John Donne and religious authority in the reformed English church

Mark S. Sweetnam

‘Though long hailed as the brainiest poet in English, Donne’s position in intellectual history has remained marginal … Mark S. Sweetnam begins to address this situation by attending closely to Donne’s theology. In six chapters, Sweetnam works through Donne’s thought on the authority of Scripture and scriptural interpretation; on the question of the position of the Church; and on the meaning and point of preaching … Sweetnam’s book usefully clarifies many of Donne’s de facto theological positions … It is worthwhile and valuable to have an overview of Donne’s theology , and I am glad to have read this careful study’, Christopher Warley, Renaissance and Reformation (Summer 2014).

‘Mark Sweetnam makes no apologies for writing a book that runs counter to many of the prevailing critical tendencies of the past thirty or so years … he is forthright about the challenges confronting the scholar treating Donne’s sermons … Sweetnam’s painstaking, diligent study succeeds in seeing the forest for the trees and stands as a solid contribution to the field’, Kendrick Prewitt, Sixteenth Century Journal (Summer 2015).