Description
Although their statues grace downtown Hartford, Connecticut, few tourists are aware that the founding ministers of Hartford's First Church, Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone (after whose English birthplace the city is named), carried a distinctive version of Puritanism to the Connecticut wilderness. Shaped by Protestant interpretations of the writings of Saint Augustine, and largely developed during the ministers' years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and as "godly" lecturers in English parish churches, Hartford's church order diverged in significant ways from its counterpart in the churches of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Focusing especially on Hooker, Baird Tipson explores the contributions of William Perkins, Alexander Richardson, and John Rogers to his thought and practice, the art and content of his preaching, and his determination to define and impose a distinctive notion of conversion on his hearers. Hooker's colleague Samuel Stone composed The Whole Body of Divinity, a comprehensive treatment of his thought (and the first systematic theology written in the American colonies). Stone's Whole Body, virtually unknown to scholars, not only provides the indispensable intellectual context for the religious development of early Connecticut but also offers a more comprehensive description of the Puritanism of early New England than anything previously available. Hartford Puritanism argues for a new paradigm of New England Puritanism, one where Hartford's founding ministers, Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone, both fully embraced and even harshened Calvin's double predestination.
About the Author
Baird Tipson is Professor of Religious Studies at Gettysburg College.
Reviews
[a] thorough yet beautifully written work ... Historical theology students in seminaries and divinity schools as well as scholars of puritanism and early American religious history would benefit greatly from this book. * Jacob Hicks, Religious Studies Review *
Tipson presents us with a detailed picture of Hookers theology... he promotes a better understanding of puritanism and of human experience in the seventeenth century as a whole. * S. Bryn Roberts, The Seventeenth Century *
Tipson's examination of Hooker and to a lesser degree his colleague at Hartford, Samuel Stone, is so thorough and so elegantly written that there can be little doubt that this book will prove of great value to subsequent researchers into Hooker and his milieu. * Harry Clark Maddux, Early American Literature *
From predestination to preaching, from abstract theology to practical divinity, Tipson does a marvelous job covering the terrain of Puritanism as it appeared in the world of Thomas Hooker...[a] beautiful, learned book. * Abram Van Engen, Common-place *
A brilliant reinterpretation of Thomas Hooker and puritanism along the Connecticut River. Tipson deftly explores the English roots of the subject and demonstrates the diversity of New England's seventeenth-century religious life. This will be required reading for all interested in American religion and colonial New England. * Francis J. Bremer, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Millersville University of Pennsylvania *
Baird Tipson has written a searching and thoughtful description of an early American theologian, notable because Tipson has an exceptional command of the history of theology, both Catholic and Reformed, and uses this knowledge to illuminate what was different or special about Hooker's version of the practical divinity. A must read for any serious student of the practical divinity as it flourished on both sides of the Atlantic in the seventeenth century. * David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School *
Baird Tipson has thoroughly mastered the writings and deeds - the life and times - of Thomas Hooker, founder of Connecticut and a leading American Puritan. The result is a splendid biography drawn from close attention to English, Dutch, and American sources, a brilliant (if also harrowing) account of Hooker's sharply predestinarian theology, and a much-needed corrective to misguided attempts at showing the modernity of this crucial figure. It is a strikingly effective book. * Mark A. Noll, author of America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190212520
Author Baird Tipson
Format Hardback
Page Count 496
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 168mm * 239mm * 41mm
About the Author
Baird Tipson is Professor of Religious Studies at Gettysburg College.
Reviews
[a] thorough yet beautifully written work ... Historical theology students in seminaries and divinity schools as well as scholars of puritanism and early American religious history would benefit greatly from this book. * Jacob Hicks, Religious Studies Review *
Tipson presents us with a detailed picture of Hookers theology... he promotes a better understanding of puritanism and of human experience in the seventeenth century as a whole. * S. Bryn Roberts, The Seventeenth Century *
Tipson's examination of Hooker and to a lesser degree his colleague at Hartford, Samuel Stone, is so thorough and so elegantly written that there can be little doubt that this book will prove of great value to subsequent researchers into Hooker and his milieu. * Harry Clark Maddux, Early American Literature *
From predestination to preaching, from abstract theology to practical divinity, Tipson does a marvelous job covering the terrain of Puritanism as it appeared in the world of Thomas Hooker...[a] beautiful, learned book. * Abram Van Engen, Common-place *
A brilliant reinterpretation of Thomas Hooker and puritanism along the Connecticut River. Tipson deftly explores the English roots of the subject and demonstrates the diversity of New England's seventeenth-century religious life. This will be required reading for all interested in American religion and colonial New England. * Francis J. Bremer, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Millersville University of Pennsylvania *
Baird Tipson has written a searching and thoughtful description of an early American theologian, notable because Tipson has an exceptional command of the history of theology, both Catholic and Reformed, and uses this knowledge to illuminate what was different or special about Hooker's version of the practical divinity. A must read for any serious student of the practical divinity as it flourished on both sides of the Atlantic in the seventeenth century. * David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School *
Baird Tipson has thoroughly mastered the writings and deeds - the life and times - of Thomas Hooker, founder of Connecticut and a leading American Puritan. The result is a splendid biography drawn from close attention to English, Dutch, and American sources, a brilliant (if also harrowing) account of Hooker's sharply predestinarian theology, and a much-needed corrective to misguided attempts at showing the modernity of this crucial figure. It is a strikingly effective book. * Mark A. Noll, author of America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190212520
Author Baird Tipson
Format Hardback
Page Count 496
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 168mm * 239mm * 41mm
