An important anti-establishment tradition is sermonry in England with congregations as audiences: John Wycliffe and his Lollards, Robert Browne and his Brownists, George Fox, Roger Williams , Richard Clyfton , John Wesley, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, John Tillotson, John Howe, Robert South to name but a few. The Dissenters revolted through the act of preaching: the Behemenists, Diggers, Familists, Seekers, Quakers, Shakers, Unitarians, Ranters, Adamites, Presbyterians, Divorcers, Puritans, Remonstrants, Muggletonians, Grindletonians, Soulsleepers, Arminians and Welsh Blasphemers.The nonconformists were rebels yelling, they were part of a cultural revolution that went hand in hand with seventeenth century republicanism. Sermons are a literary form like any other. Think of the beauty and power of the Sermon on the Mount , think of Martin Luther King's great sermon. Think of James Brown's sermon in the Blues Brothers, Billy Graham preaching in front of the crowds. Sermons ar
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head