Hartford Puritanism: Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Their Terrifying God

by Baird Tipson

Overview

Statues of Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone grace downtown Hartford, Connecticut, but few residents are aware of the distinctive version of Puritanism that these founding ministers of Harford's First Church carried into to the Connecticut wilderness (or indeed that the city takes its name from Stone's English birthplace). Shaped by interpretations of the writings of Saint Augustine largely developed during the ministers' years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Hartford's church order diverged in significant ways from its counterpart in the churches of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hartford Puritanism argues for a new paradigm of New England Puritanism. Hartford's founding ministers, Baird Tipson shows, both fully embraced - and even harshened - Calvin's double predestination. Tipson explores the contributions of the lesser-known William Perkins, Alexander Richardson, and John Rogers to Thomas Hooker's thought and practice: the art and content of his preaching, as well as his determination to define and impose a distinctive notion of conversion on his hearers. The book draws heavily on Samuel Stone's The Whole Body of Divinity, a comprehensive exposition of his thought and the first systematic theology written in the American colonies. Virtually unknown today, The Whole Body of Divinity 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 any other document.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190266349
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/25/2015
Series:	Oxford Studies in Historical Theology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	798 KB

About the Author

Baird Tipson (A. B. Princeton; Ph. D. Yale) taught Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and Central Michigan University before becoming Provost of Gettysburg College (1987-1995), President of Wittenberg University (1995-2004), and President of Washington College (2004-2010). He presently teaches at Gettysburg College, continues research on religion in Tudor-Stuart England and early New England, and sings in the choir at St. James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements Chapter I: Creating the Thomas Hooker Brand Chapter II: Hooker and Stone in England, Holland, and New England Chapter III: The Reformation of Manners in Chelmsford Chapter IV: Why People Want What They Want: St. Augustine of Hippo and His God Chapter V: The Search for Alternatives to Extreme Augustinianism Chapter VI: The Terrifying God of William Perkins, Thomas Hooker, and Samuel Stone Chapter VII: Richardsonian Ramism Chapter VIII: Preaching the Gospel in Chelmsford and Hartford Chapter IX: Learning How To Imagine Conversion Chapter X: Hooker and Stone Preach Conversion Chapter XI: Gaining Assurance of Salvation Chapter XII: Identifying the Saints Chapter XIII: Concluding Reflections Appendix: Hooker's Metaphors of Conversion Abbreviations and Bibliography Index

Editorial 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 Hooker's 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

"[Tipson] is consciously moving Hooker s writings on practical divinity into the broader currents of recent transatlantic Puritan and early modern theological research. In that he is entirely successful....This is an extremely fine-grained, expansive, nuanced study, and should be considered the new baseline for scholarship on Hooker's preaching."—The New England Quarterly

"Remarkable, wide-ranging...Tipson's erudite back story of Puritan theology will become required reading for scholars of Anglo-American Calvinism."—Journal of American History

"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

"Anyone interested in Puritan practical divinity can read Hartford Puritanism with profit. This is an extremely fine-grained, expansive, nuanced study, and should be considered the new baseline for scholarship on Hooker's preaching."—The New England Quarterly

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