The sermon as crafted by the early New England preachers was the
most prominent literary form of its day, yet the earliest Puritan
texts have as a rule been available only in rare-book collections.
This anthology of sermons of the first generation of preachers
fills a serious gap in American literature. The preachers collected
here, the most widely published of their time, were among the
eighty or more who emigrated to Massachusetts Bay during the 1630s.
They are John Cotton of Boston, Thomas Shepard of Cambridge, and
Thomas Hooker of Hartford, the three foremost "lights of the
western churches," and two eminent colleagues, Peter Bulkeley of
Concord and John Davenport, first of New Haven and later of Boston.
The selections are chosen to be representative of the lengthy works
from which they are drawn, to reflect the major concerns and styles
of the preachers' work as a whole, and to demonstrate the genre of
the sermon as developed by the early American Puritans. Not only
does this anthology represent an important contribution to literary
history, but the sermons also illustrate a doctrine uniquely
elaborated in this period-a consistent and emphatic narrative,
mythlike in its repetition and heroics, of the progress of the soul
from a state of nature to a state of salvation. This theme may be
seen as a three-stage-development, although individual sermons may
vary. These stages-preparation, vocation, and
regeneration-determine the order of the selections. The editors'
introductory material supplies a comprehensive and thorough
discussion of the early New England sermons, concentrating on their
role, history, structure, style, and subject matter. A separate
essay on the texts of the sermons describes the relationship
between the early printed versions and their form as delivered in
the pulpit. The introduction preceding each selection presents
original research on the historical circumstances of the preaching
and publication of the work from which the sermon is drawn. The
editors have also provided brief biographies of the preacfiers
represented here, an annotated list of recommended background
reading, and the most exhaustive checklist available of
authoritative editions of the sermons of these five preachers. This
book will be useful to colonial specialists as well as to students
of early American literature, religion, and history. The texts are
critically edited for readability, with modernized spelling and
annotations of unfamiliar phrases and allusions.
General
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