Whereas the Catholic tradition emphasized that the state of the soul was determined at the moment of death, the Protestant tradition – witnessed in a work such as William Perkins, Salve for a Sicke Man(1595) – stressed more the art of living so as to reach a blessed end.43 introduction could be consoled with the thought that they knew exactly when death would come and so could be flawlessly prepared.42 However, it was not without its adversaries, notably in the Anglophone world, as is well attested by Bruce Hindmarsh: Hindmarsh here uses the English dichotomy between Catholic and Protestant, which in differences such as the lack of the Lutheran perspective reflects a somewhat different world than on the Continent. As will be seen, until the later eighteenth century it was rare to find such ’Protestant’ ideas in Lutheran and most Reformed theology outside Britain. Lingering in the background, though, was also abhorrence for suicide in almost every Christian theology, even if exceptions could be found where the road to heaven could be taken through suicide or murder. Two theological movements, particularly on the non-Catholic side, are of central importance to this book: Pietism and Neology (the latter also called natural theology or rationalism). Though not exact, to say Neology was theology’s Enlightenment is not wrong. Although the two movements were different, they were still related, with Pietism being one root of Neology. They arguably both worked to release religion or faith from the bonds of the Church, or, as Regin Prenter puts it, to replace the word of God and faith by experience or reason.44 In both movements there was atendency to emphasise the role of the individual and give primacy to the demands either of the faith or of morals. Of course, this had been true of earlier spirituality too, but not as consistently or so emphatically. There were many differences between a theology somewhere on a pietistic track and a theology or a philosophy influenced by the Enlightenment. Yet there was also consensus on a vital point: the confidence and 42 Edgerton 2003 p 256. 43 Hindmarsh 2012 p 256. 44 Bender 1882 p 4, 12 sq, Prenter 1971 p 186. 31
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