A reforming people : Puritanism and the transformation of public life in New England

Resource Information

The work A reforming people : Puritanism and the transformation of public life in New England represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Union Presbyterian Seminary Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

A reforming people : Puritanism and the transformation of public life in New England

Title remainder

Puritanism and the transformation of public life in New England

Statement of responsibility

David D. Hall

Creator

• Hall, David D

Subject

• New England -- Church history -- 17th century
• New England -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
• Local government -- New England -- History -- 17th century
• Puritans -- New England -- History -- 17th century
• Religion and politics -- New England -- History -- 17th century
• New England -- Politics and government -- To 1775

Language

eng

Summary

This work is an account of the aspirations and accomplishments of the people who founded the New England colonies, comparing the reforms they enacted with those attempted in England during the period of the English Revolution. The author, a historian looks afresh at how the colonists set up churches, civil governments, and methods for distributing land. Bringing with them a deep fear of arbitrary, unlimited authority grounded in either church or state, these settlers based their churches on the participation of laypeople and insisted on consent as a premise of all civil governance. Encouraging broad participation and relying on the vigorous use of petitioning, they also transformed civil and criminal law and the workings of courts. The outcome was a civil society far less authoritarian and hierarchical than was customary in their age, indeed, a society so advanced that a few dared to describe it as "democratical." They were well ahead of their time in doing so. As Puritans, the colonists also hoped to exemplify a social ethics of equity, peace, and the common good. In a case study of a single town, the author follows a minister as he encourages the townspeople to live up to these high standards in their politics. This is a book that challenges us to discard long standing stereotypes of the Puritans as temperamentally authoritarian and their leadership as despotic. The author demonstrates exactly the opposite. Here, we watch the colonists as they insist on aligning institutions and social practice with equity and liberty. This re-evaluation of the earliest moments of New England's history, reveals the colonists to be the most effective and daring reformers of their day

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

974/.02

Index

index present

LC call number

F7

LC item number

.H227 2011

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography