'W' is for Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers
1. Introduction
The
Diggers and their key spokesman Gerrard Winstanley were a fleeting product of
the English Revolution whose ideas have been influential among religious and
political radicals ever since. The evidence suggests that Winstanley later
became a Quaker. What were the key characteristics of the Digger religious vision?
2. The Fall – Emergence of Private Property
Winstanley
linked the fall of humanity with the emergence of private property and argued
that with the restoration of Israel all would again enjoy the fruits of the
earth as a common treasury (Bradstock 2011, p.55). He believed that the prelapsarian
community would be re-established when Christ/Reason came to reign once more in
human hearts and private property was abolished (Bradstock 2011, p.60).
3. Christ in all People and all Things
Winstanley’s theology was based on a belief in Christ/Reason as an
indwelling spirit, a “living power of light that is in all things." Christ/Reason
is an active force of love, justice, and wisdom which preserves of the whole
creation. Without it there would be madness and disorder. Winstanley defined Christ/Reason as a moral guide within
people which they could either attend to or ignore. He called for an end to all
outward forms to allow Christ/ Reason to rise up in people and all things as a
second coming. Here we see a form of pantheism in which the creation is
"the clothing of God" (Sunderland 1991).
4. Belief in Transformation/Divinisation
Winstanley was convinced that moral reformation
and freedom would follow not from changing institutions but through Christ's
Second Coming within people (Sutherland 1991). He wrote “when (Christ) hath
spread himself abroad amongst his sons and daughters, the members of his mystical
body, then this community of love and righteousness, making all to use the
blessings of the earth as a common treasury amongst them, shall break forth
again in his glory, and fill the earth, and shall be no more suppressed: and
none shall say, this is mine, but every one shall preserve each other in love.”
(Bradstock 2011, p.63).
Inward
change would lead to outward change so digging was an outward symbol of
inward change. It demonstrated God's power and, it was hoped, would hasten the internal
change in men's hearts (Sutherland 1991). What had
happened within and without him would also happen within others - “I have writ, I have
acted, I have peace and now I must wait to see the Spirit do his work in the
hearts of others” (Bradstock 2011, p.56)
5. Experiential Faith
Winstanley
stressed the immanence of God, who could be known by all without the aid of
church or clergy. Each person has the capacity to judge all things by
experience (Bradstock 2011, p.63/4) He asserted that those who worship God as
others tell them to, or imagine that God is in heaven above them, do not see that
God is actually a light within them. He used the word
Reason for God because "I have been held under darknesse by that word [God],
as I see many people are" (Sunderland 1991).
6. Anticlericalism
For
Winstanley, the clergy, landowners and lawyers were an unholy trinity upholding
the present iniquitous system (Bradstock 2011, p.68). As we have seen he
laid great stress on individual experience against the presumptions of the
clergy and scholars. He desired for everyone to speak "his own words, not
another mans as the Preachers do, to make a trade of it." He railed
against collecting tithes while many lived in poverty and accusingly exclaimed
that "Priests and zealous professors" worshiped the devil. In an
introductory letter to the tract Truth Lifting Up its Head,
Winstanley asserted that clergy and scholars did not have "the alone
priviledge to judge; for the People having the Scriptures, may judge by them as
well" (Sunderland 1991).
7. Spirit over Letter
Like many other radical movements Winstanley gave priority to the Spirit
over the letter. Regarding the assertion that the Scriptures are God
because the Word was God, Winstanley answered that if God is the written word,
then He has been torn to pieces by "the bad interpretations of imaginary
flesh." Winstanley interpreted the spirit as the Word and the Scriptures
as the testimony of men about that spirit. He encouraged his readers to
"learne to put a difference betweene the Report, and the thing Reported
of." He argued that without the spirit, the Scriptures were worth
considerably less. He called the writings of the Apostles "reports or
declarations" of the Gospel. The writings themselves were not the Gospel. He
suggested that "declaration or report of words out of the mouth or pen of men
shall cease; but the spirit endures for ever; from whence those words were
breathed: as when I have the thing promised, the word of the promise ceases” (Sunderland 1991).
8. Metaphorical Biblical Interpretation
Winstanley
interpreted biblical narratives as metaphor for current inward and outward experience.
For him the Bible stories continued to be lived out in contemporary struggles
between rich and powerful, poor and weak (e.g. Cain continued to murder Abel
over and over again). He felt that the ‘Adam’ dwelling in each person would be
overcome by the ‘Second Adam’ which is the power of Christ. This was a struggle
between flesh and spirit, darkness and light played out both within each
individual and within society (Bradstock 2011, p.58). Winstanley described this
internal conflict over who governs within a person as a struggle between two
powers, Jacob and Esau, "the two Adams in mankind." He urged his
readers to internalize biblical history. Adam and Christ, Cain and Abel,
Abraham, Moses, and Israel were to be seen within (Sunderland
1991). Similarly,
heaven and hell were present states: heaven being God’s order, and hell the
conditions men and women have created for themselves on earth (Bradstock 2011,
p.68).
9. Links to Quakerism
In 1664 early
Quaker minister Edward Burrough informed Margaret Fell that “Winstanley says he
believes we are sent to perfect that work which fell in their hands; he hath
been with us” (Bradstock 2011, p.72). Winstanley's theology contained many
elements that were consistent with that of the early Quakers. This included his
denial of external forms, the raising of the Holy Spirit over the letter of the law or
Scripture and his vision of salvation coming by a spiritual rising up of Christ
in all men and women rather than through a physical return. When he and William Everard met
General Fairfax they refused to remove their hats because he was ‘but their
fellow creature’. They also undertook not to use force even in self-defence
(Bradstock 2011, p.54).
9. References
Bradstock,
Andrew (2011) Radical Religion in Cromwell’s England
(I.B. Taurus)
Sutherland,
Donald R. (1991) The Religion of Gerrard Winstanley and Communism
(unpublished MA thesis)
Fabulous stuff, Stuart. I have been thinking much lately about the letter that kills and the Spirit who gives life, and it seems to me that in their pronouncements on other people's morals (a word which never appears in Scripture!), most evangelical scholars/writers seem never to have read that verse.
ReplyDeleteThanks Veronica! I do think it's helpful to hear alternative voices like those of Winstanley and the Diggers to balance the discussion.
ReplyDelete