Orthodoxies in Massachusetts: Rereading American Puritanism

Abstract

Re-examining religious culture in 17th-century New England, Janice Knight discovers a contest of rival factions within the Puritan orthodoxy. Arguing that two distinctive strains of Puritan piety emerged in England prior to the migration to America, she describes a split between rationalism and mysticism, between theologies based on God's command and on God's love.