Religion and governance in England's emerging colonial empire, 1601–1698.

In his conclusion, Smith emphasises the underlying similarity between the goals of English corporate religious governance as practised by the various companies under discussion. Taking as his focus religious governance in the seventeenth-century trading company, Smith unpicks an oft-overlooked aspect of English religious history. But as Haig Smith reminds us in this illuminating new book, the Church of England was adapting to the challenges of global encounter long before the foundation of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1698. [Extracted from the article]