ABSTRACT
The story of the Reformation and early-modern religious struggles remains an inescapable, even if distant, component of the story of who philosophers now are, in the region of the world. The Reformation in England took a different course to that on the continent, change initiated by Henry VIII’s break with Rome and stabilised in some aspects by the Elizabeth settlement. It is generally recognised that both Renaissance and Reformation produced changes in the concept of self, relations, and affective life. The chapter examines the make-up of England, the centrality of religion, and the means by which individuals, families, and groups accounted for the changes they saw around them; not simply examples of changing beliefs, but the veritable enlargement and diversification of subjectivities and configurations of group/individual, family/culture. A central consideration, then, is the transformation of a country of “good Catholics” into a Protestant nation, long-term implications for the conduct of social life and belief; a new “culture of discipline” emerged.
