The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 / Edition 1

by Robert Middlekauff

Overview

In this classic work of American religious history, Robert Middlekauff traces the evolution of Puritan thought and theology in America from its origins in New England through the early eighteenth century. He focuses on three generations of intellectual ministers—Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather—in order to challenge the traditional telling of the secularization of Puritanism, a story of faith transformed by reason, science, and business. Delving into the Mathers' private papers and unpublished writings as well as their sermons and published works, Middlekauff describes a Puritan theory of religious experience that is more creative, complex, and uncompromising than traditional accounts have allowed. At the same time, he portrays changing ideas and patterns of behavior that reveal much about the first hundred years of American life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520219304
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/29/1999
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	458
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Robert Middlekauff is Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History at the University of California, Berkeley, and was Harmsworth Professor at Oxford University in 1996-97. His books include Benjamin Franklin and His Enemies (California, 1996) and The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 (1982).

Table of Contents

BOOK I RICHARD MATHER (1596-1669): HISTORY

I The Founder 
2 The Antichrist 
3 The Church 
4 The Word 

BOOK 11 INCREASE MATHER (1639-1723): TYPOLOGY

5 An Unripened Puritan 
6 The Invention of New England 
7 The Church of the Pure 
8 The Invisible World 
9 The Word in Boston 
10 Chiliasm 

BOOK III COTTON MATHER (1663-1728): PROPHECY

11 The Virtuous Epicure 
12 Christian Union and the Meaning of New England 
13 The Psychology of Abasement 
14 Christ and the Covenant 
15 The Failure of Reformation 
16 The Experimental Philosophy
17 The Experimental Religion 
18 The Prophecy of Joel 
19 "On the Borders of Paradise" 

NOTES 

A Note on the Sources 

INDEX