Cotton Mather is probably best known for his contributions to the Puritanism of colonial America. Yet the subject of this book is Mather’s theology of Christian experience, usually associated with continental Pietism, a dynamic movement of reform and renewal in the Lutheran church. Richard Lovelace summarizes the basic thrust of Mather’s treatment of spiritual rebirth, sanctification, pastoral and social ministry, the need for spiritual awakening, and the effects he believed this awakening should produce in Christianity and the mission of the church.
In Mather, the two great strains of American Evangelical Protestantism–Puritanism and Pietism–were combined, influencing Jonathan Edwards and American religion in general throughout the Great Awakening and subsequent revivals. Thus, the book is unique in tracing the roots of modern Evangelicalism beyond nineteenth-century Arminianism to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century blend of Puritant-Pietist thought.
Sobre o autor
Richard Lovelace received his B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University, his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Westminster Theological Seminary, and his doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Lovelace has been a professor of Church History at Gordon-Conwell Seminary since 1969. He served on the task force on homosexuality commissioned by the United Presbyterian Church, and has been a frequent and articulate contributor of numerous articles for Christianity Today and Eternity.