A professor of literature at Harvard, Leo Damrosch has analyzed the early development of the Quaker movement through the words and actions of James Nayler. This scholarly book is more than a study of Nayler and the charge of "horrid blasphemy" leveled against him after his ride through Bristol imitating Jesus' Palm Sunday ride through Jerusalem; it is an analysis of Quaker doctrine and theology as seen through the life of Nayler.
If Puritanism is defined as a movement of Christians in Britain who wished to purify the Church of England, it would seem that the Quakers belong in the Radical Puritan movement rather than outside the Puritan movement altogether, which is where Damrosch placed them. Nevertheless, this book is a fine piece of research into the issues of religious toleration and social order in Cromwellian England.
Through Nayler's defense of is belief that Jesus dwelt in all believers, Damrosch vividly shows the predicament of Quakers in a society that felt threatened by them and their prophetic claims. He used primary sources to demonstrate that Nayler was an eloquent speaker and deeply intelligent as well as interesting thinker. In fact, Nayler comes across as a subtler and more perspicuous writer than George fox.
This excellent book is a profound study of human beings caught up in one of the more fascinating sects that grew out of the radical Puritan movement in Britain. Marcella Biro Barton, University of Rio Grande; Cambridge Journal Online