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Preface

When I was a theological student, a visiting lecturer tried to put us all off Jeremy Taylor. In time, I was able to adjust such a view considerably. His name kept coming up in conversations and in some of the readings in the various anthologies that have appeared since then. But it was when I became a parish priest that I really began to appreciate both the depth and the scope of his writing, not just ‘Holy Living’ – perhaps his best-known work – but other aspects of his theology.

Dated as his florid language and penitential tone appear to a culture that prefers the epigrammatic and suspects certain kinds of self-examination, Taylor’s continues to resound across the centuries. In an age of polarized religious views, he held out for a thoughtful liberality that didn’t avoid difficult questions. It was an age to which he brought his own distinct approach to sacramental theology; an age of both bawdiness and repression that could benefit from what he wrote about sex as something to be enjoyed responsibly; an age that had its fair share of economic exploitation, in which he took pains to warn against profiteering. And he had the courage to challenge what he saw as the overly negative view of original sin prevalent in his time.

In putting this collection together, I want to thank Christine Smith and Natalie Watson of Canterbury Press for their kindness and cooperation. And among the many people who have nurtured my appreciation of Taylor over the years, I must mention Henry McAdoo, who devoted so much of his retirement to the study of Taylor’s many works, and Jessica Martin for her assistance as well.

Kenneth Stevenson

Chichester, December 2010