Sympathetic Puritans

Calvinist Fellow Feeling in Early New England

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Church, Church & State, History, Americas, United States, Colonial Period (1600-1775), Church History
Cover of the book Sympathetic Puritans by Abram Van Engen, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Abram Van Engen ISBN: 9780190266653
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: February 25, 2015
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Abram Van Engen
ISBN: 9780190266653
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: February 25, 2015
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Revising dominant accounts of Puritanism and challenging the literary history of sentimentalism, Sympathetic Puritans argues that a Calvinist theology of sympathy shaped the politics, religion, rhetoric, and literature of early New England. Scholars have often understood and presented sentimentalism as a direct challenge to stern and stoic Puritan forebears; the standard history traces a cult of sensibility back to moral sense philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment, not Puritan New England. Abram C. Van Engen has unearthed pervasive evidence of sympathy in a large archive of Puritan sermons, treatises, tracts, poems, journals, histories, and captivity narratives. He demonstrates how two types of sympathy -- the active command to fellow-feel (a duty), as well as the passive sign that could indicate salvation (a discovery) -- permeated Puritan society and came to define the very boundaries of English culture, affecting conceptions of community, relations with Native Americans, and the development of American literature. Van Engen re-examines the Antinomian Controversy, conversion narratives, transatlantic relations, Puritan missions, Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative -- and Puritan culture more generally -- through the lens of sympathy. Demonstrating and explicating a Calvinist theology of sympathy in seventeenth-century New England, the book reveals the religious history of a concept that has previously been associated with more secular roots.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Revising dominant accounts of Puritanism and challenging the literary history of sentimentalism, Sympathetic Puritans argues that a Calvinist theology of sympathy shaped the politics, religion, rhetoric, and literature of early New England. Scholars have often understood and presented sentimentalism as a direct challenge to stern and stoic Puritan forebears; the standard history traces a cult of sensibility back to moral sense philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment, not Puritan New England. Abram C. Van Engen has unearthed pervasive evidence of sympathy in a large archive of Puritan sermons, treatises, tracts, poems, journals, histories, and captivity narratives. He demonstrates how two types of sympathy -- the active command to fellow-feel (a duty), as well as the passive sign that could indicate salvation (a discovery) -- permeated Puritan society and came to define the very boundaries of English culture, affecting conceptions of community, relations with Native Americans, and the development of American literature. Van Engen re-examines the Antinomian Controversy, conversion narratives, transatlantic relations, Puritan missions, Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative -- and Puritan culture more generally -- through the lens of sympathy. Demonstrating and explicating a Calvinist theology of sympathy in seventeenth-century New England, the book reveals the religious history of a concept that has previously been associated with more secular roots.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book Promising Practices in 21st Century Music Teacher Education by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Classical Traditions in Modern Fantasy by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book The Sjogren's Book by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Careers Beyond Clinical Medicine by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Statistics for International Social Work And Other Behavioral Sciences by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Identify and Sort by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Ending Life by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Fanny Hensel by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Red Roses Starter Level Oxford Bookworms Library by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book From the Kitchen to the Parlor by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Russia in World History by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Wonder Reborn by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book The Amphibians and Reptiles of New York State by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction by Abram Van Engen
Cover of the book Singing Across Divides by Abram Van Engen
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy