University of Illinois Press

1996 – Prayer, Despair, and Drama explores the godly sorrow and pious dis-ease, or lack of ease, of Elizabethan Calvinists and finds that what some have characterized as an evangelism of fear functioned more as a kind of religious therapy.

In this major contribution to discussions of the relationship between religion and literature in Elizabethan England, Peter Iver Kaufman argues that the soul-searching and self-scourging typical of late Tudor Calvinism was reflected in the rhetoric of self-loathing then prevalent in sermons, sonnets, and soliloquys. Kaufman shows how this spiritual psychology informs major literary texts including Hamlet, The Fairie Queene, Donne’s Holy Sonnets, and other works.

A volume in the series Studies in Anglican History, edited by Peter W. Williams

“Strikingly original and beautifully written….Prayer, Despair, and Drama is an extremely rich, complex study.” – John Corrigan, Arizona State University West

Princeton University Press | Amazon

1990 – Peter Iver Kaufman explores how various Christian leaders throughout history have used forms of “political theology” to merge the romance of conquest and empire with hopes for political and religious redemption. His discussion covers such figures as Constantine, Augustine, Charlemagne, Pope Gregory VII, Dante, Zwingli, Calvin, and Cromwell.

“[This book] stands as an impressive series of studies of the church-state relationship. . . . It shows how creative religious leaders have been as they have worked to relate faith to politics in the assurance that the world and the communities of faith cannot exist well in complete separation.” – W. Fred Graham, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“[An] engaging, ambitious thesis. At a time when the vexed relationship of religion to politics (rightly) occupies so much of our attention it is essential to have such carefully composed historical studies to help us reflect on these critical issues.” – Harvey Cox, Harvard University