Many students of our national character would agree that, for better or worse, the Puritan tradition had an enormous effect on the assumptions and aspirations of today's Americans. This book tells the story, largely through the participants' own words, of the emergence of that tradition. It provides a broad range of primary documents--religious, political, social, legal, familial, and economic--for an understanding of Puritanism in early New England. Originally published in 1972, it is reissued here with a new introduction and two new documents: extracts from Anne Hutchinson's trial and from John Winthrop's "Experiencia."

This study examines the influence of John Calvin in ethics eschatology and education, as well as those influences that affected him. It examines his writings to determine if his vision made him an innovator. The research searched for reforms in the areas of ethics, curriculum, understanding of the teaching office, and universal education. It also looked at philosophy, economics, and labor. A belief in the after life and end times was an ethical motivation for Calvin and education was a means by which the people that he worked with and wrote to could understand how they should live and why they should live like that. Thus, there is an important connection among ethics, eschatology and education. All people were to work to their potential at their job because in doing their job they would honor God. Teachers were especially important. Those who taught would affect the quality of education. Calvin worked to provide teacher training and support. He believed that all occupations could be a special calling from God and education was a means to prepare the young person for his or her calling. Schools existed in Geneva before Calvin arrived in 1536; however, they did not function in the way that Calvin would have liked. Calvin provided the elementary students with a needed text when he prepared a catechism. The students had written material that they could read and study and a systematic presentation of the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Calvin also wanted more appropriate facilities in which the students could learn. Although his organization of the schools improved the atmosphere for learning, the building of the Academy was his dream and became his major educational achievement in the city of Geneva. Because16th century students needed to be prepared for the new world, there was a need for curriculum change. The students were required to read many of the prominent Greek and Roman authors in the ancient languages but the student learned theology, Hebrew, poetry, dialectic and rhetoric, physics, and mathematics as well. Calvin wished to graduate a well rounded scholar who could take his or her place in society. In this way the citizens of Geneva and all those of the Reformed belief would be better prepared for life on earth and the after life.

This book investigates the Mission of the Reformed Church in America sent to Arabia in 1889 to preach the Gospel, and which operated in the Persian Gulf until 1973. It also explores the various cultural encounters between missionaries and Muslims, and discusses conversion and the place of Islam in the Protestant eschatology. It maintains that John G. Lansing from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Jersey, who founded the Arabian Mission, deliberately dedicated the Mission to "direct Muslim evangelism". In terms of premillennialism, Lansing "moved" Islam into the very centre of the theological discourse, and presented the evangelization of Muslims as critical for Christ's Second Coming. This made the Arabian Mission unique among the American Protestant Missions, and placed the Church and missionaries between religious pluralism and the obligations of the Great Commission.