The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596â "1728

Middlekauff, Robert

ISBN 10: 0520219309 / ISBN 13: 9780520219304

Published by University of California Press, 1999

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596â "1728
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520219309
• ISBN 13: 9780520219304
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

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 Delving into the Mathers' private papers and unpublished writings as well as their sermons and published works, Middlekauff describes a Puritan theory of religious experience that is more creative, complex, and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.

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).