Customer Reviews

Visible Saints

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Instead of trying to cover the totality of Puritan experience, the author focuses on a few crucial topics. What motivated the Puritans? What were they trying to accomplish? He illuminates the differences between the different branches of Puritanism: Separatists (the Pilgrims), who believed that each and every church should stand alone; Congregationalists (the majority of those who settled the rest of Massachusetts and formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony), who believed in a loose affiliation of churches, and Presbyterians, who wanted a rigid church hierarchy. He also illustrates how the beliefs and practices of each group evolved over time. If you want to really understand some of our most famous ancestors, this relatively slender volume is a must read.

Morgan's study focuses on important concepts within the history of Christianity in Colonial New England. What were the requirements for belonging to the church? And related to this, who could be baptized and receive the Lord's Supper? Morgan supplies the answers to these questions in a readable style. Further, for the most part, he reflects on these questions in terms of what the Puritans themselves believed. In short, this is a book that anyone interested in the history of Christianity in Colonial America, especially Calvinist-oriented Christianity, will want to read.