The Culture of English Puritanism, 1560-1700

Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique, 2022

Puritanism has, rightly, been seen as a primarily English phenomenon. But puritan ideas can also be studied in very different contexts, as they spread throughout the English-speaking religious world. This article seeks to “decenter” puritanism by examining it from the perspective of the other two national churches in Britain and Ireland – those in Scotland and Ireland. Taking Patrick Collinson’s definition of puritanism—that it was not something definable in itself, but rather it was one half of a stressful relationship – it is shown that in both Ireland and Scotland, puritanism only came into existence when it was attacked by the English monarch and by those who saw puritanism in terms of its English manifestation. Until well into the seventeenth century, puritanism in both Ireland and Scotland was just a largely unnoticed part of a broadly reformed church. Only with the extension of royal power in the course of the first half of the seventeenth century, and the subsequent determination of King Charles I and Archbishop William Laud to bring the three Churches into closer conformity, did puritanism become a major issue in Ireland and Scotland.

Journal of Baptist Theology and Ministry, 2020

A review of Michael P. Winship's work on the history of English and American Puritanism. (Yale University Press, 2019)

Puritanism has been credited (and blamed) for bequeathing a puzzling set of legacies, including the spirit of capitalism, scientific enterprise, Anglo-Saxon sexual repression, companionate marriage, liberal democracy, American exceptionalism, and religious bigotry. Puritans have been hailed as midwives of modernity, and censured as reactionary foes of enlightened values. In the first half of this chapter, I want to introduce some of the grand theories about Puritanism and modernity, explaining how they have generated vigorous but inconclusive debate. In the second half, I will point to an alternative way of exploring the Puritan legacy, one that studies the reception and uses of Puritan religious texts from the eighteenth century onwards, and asks how later generations remembered and represented seventeenth-century Puritanism.

This document expresses my thoughts and questions regarding Puritanism and its context in Enlightenment-era Europe. I will focus my thoughts via interacting with J.I. Packer's book A Quest For Godliness (Crossway, 1990).

2016

Introduction Alec Ryrie and Tom Schwanda 1. 'Light accompanied with vital heat': affection and intellect in the thought of Richard Baxter Keith Condie 2. Thomas Goodwin and the 'Supreme Happiness of Man' Karl Jones 3. The Saints' Desire and Delight to be with Christ Tom Schwanda 4. 'Milke and Honey': Puritan Happiness in the Writings of Robert Bolton, John Norden and Francis Rous S. Bryn Roberts 5. Affliction and the Stony Heart in Early New England Adrian Chastein Weimer 6. Piety and the Politics of Anxiety in Nonconformist Writing of the Later Stuart Period David Walker 7. Resting Assured in Puritan Piety: the Lay Experience Kate Narveson 8. Emotions and the Development of Virtue in Puritan Thought: An Investigation of Puritan Friendship Nathaniel Warne 9. Puritan Emotions in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Piety Willem J. op 't Hof

An evaluation of various taxonomies of English Puritanism and an updated definition of it by the author.