ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests that elements in the Puritan 'world view', particularly the sharp distinction between good and evil, had close affinities with the structures of 'popular culture'. It shows that Arminianism focused on a view of the Church and the Christian community on earth which contrasted sharply with Puritan and evangelical Protestant positions. The English Civil War once had a prime place in an account of Britain's history as a linear progression towards liberal democracy, religious toleration and world leadership. The view of the Civil War as a progressive landmark is particularly vulnerable because it seems an embarrassing exception to the dominant view of England's development whereby change occurs through gradual and consensual mechanisms. England remained an ancien régime state, dominated by divine-right monarchy, the established Church and the landed aristocracy until 1832.
