Light and Enlightenment

What was the extent of intellectual contact between England and Holland, the two principal Protestant powers of Europe in the seventeenth century? In this book, Rosalie L. Colie answers that question, focusing on the intellectual milieu which proved so stimulating for John Locke and certain Dutch intellectuals and contextualises them within the broader scope of the Dutch Arminians and the Cambridge Platonists. Although the eighteenth century is traditionally thought of as the age of enlightenment, here Colie argues that the seventeenth century was no less preoccupied with the search for divine light and truth. She draws attention to the ideological influence of the Dutch Arminians and the Cambridge Platonists, both on each other and on their intellectual heirs as they attempted to interpret the world for their successors. This book demonstrates the sometimes undervalued influence and significance of the Dutch Arminians and the Cambridge Platonists and their place in the international enlightening of the seventeenth century.