The Jesuits Cannot Be Good Subjects: A Look at John Davenant’s Political Theology

A lecture with Q&A given by Dr. Michael Lynch entitled "The Jesuits Cannot Be Good Subjects: A Look at John Davenant’s Political Theology" with respondent Dr. Glenn Moots. John Davenant is a long neglected Reformation figure, whose work on hypothetical universalism has had a renaissance. But what about his political theology? In this lecture, Davenant Hall Teaching Fellow Michael Lynch explores John Davenant’s political theology in his early modern English context. Using lectures Davenant gave at Cambridge during his professorship and Davenant’s untranslated Latin treatise on the Judge of Controversies, Lynch explains how Davenant conceived of magisterial jurisdiction relative to ecclesiastical jurisdiction and in opposition to Roman Catholic political theology.