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Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England
This book tells an extraordinary story of the people of early New England and their spiritual lives. It is about ordinary people--farmers, housewives, artisans, merchants, sailors, aspiring scholars--struggling to make sense of their time and place on earth. David Hall describes a world of religious consensus and a variety of conflicting beliefs and believers ranging from the committed core to outright dissenters. He reveals for the first time the many-layered complexity of colonial religious life, and the importance within it of traditions derived from those of the Old World. We see a religion of the laity that was to merge with the tide of democratic nationalism in the nineteenth century, and that remains with us today as the essence of Protestant America.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
David D. Hall
41 books9 followers
For the Fenland Survey historian, see David D. Hall.
Professor David D. Hall is an American historian, and was Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, at Harvard Divinity School.
He graduated from Harvard University, and from Yale University with a Ph.D. He is well known for introducing Lived religion to religious studies scholarship in the United States, most notably at Harvard Divinity School.
Hall was Bartlett Professor of New England Church History until 2008, when he became Bartlett Research Professor. He writes extensively on religion and society in seventeenth-century New England and England.
His books include The Faithful Shepherd: A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century; Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England; Puritans in the New World: A Critical Anthology and, most recently, A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England (2011). He has edited two key collections of documents: The Antinomian Controversy of 1636–1638: A Documentary History and Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England: A Documentary History, 1638–1693.
Another interest is the "history of the book," especially the history of literacy and reading in early America. He edited, with Hugh Amory, The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World, the first of a five-volume series of which he was the general editor.
He continues to study and write about religion and culture in early America, with particular attention to "lived religion," and is presently writing a general history of Puritanism in England, Scotland, and New England c. 1550 to 1700, to be published by Princeton University Press.
Professor David D. Hall is an American historian, and was Bartlett Professor of New England Church History, at Harvard Divinity School.
He graduated from Harvard University, and from Yale University with a Ph.D. He is well known for introducing Lived religion to religious studies scholarship in the United States, most notably at Harvard Divinity School.
Hall was Bartlett Professor of New England Church History until 2008, when he became Bartlett Research Professor. He writes extensively on religion and society in seventeenth-century New England and England.
His books include The Faithful Shepherd: A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century; Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England; Puritans in the New World: A Critical Anthology and, most recently, A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England (2011). He has edited two key collections of documents: The Antinomian Controversy of 1636–1638: A Documentary History and Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth-Century New England: A Documentary History, 1638–1693.
Another interest is the "history of the book," especially the history of literacy and reading in early America. He edited, with Hugh Amory, The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World, the first of a five-volume series of which he was the general editor.
He continues to study and write about religion and culture in early America, with particular attention to "lived religion," and is presently writing a general history of Puritanism in England, Scotland, and New England c. 1550 to 1700, to be published by Princeton University Press.
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February 18, 2023
(2022) This is an excellent book about seventeenth-century New England. Hall is talking about religious belief---which, of course, was massively important to the Puritans, but, as he proves, not monolithic. He discusses the Puritans' interest in "wonders"---by which they meant anything out of the ordinary, e.g., rainbows, though most of the wonders they collected were disasters or portents of disaster: earthquakes and comets and monstrous births. He also talks about their literacy rate, and what it meant to come as close as they did to achieving the Protestant ideal of every person able to read the bible for themselves. (They came very close, and it did not go as expected.) He has chapters on the uses of ritual (in a culture that had deliberately stripped all the ritual out) and the meetinghouse as the interface between the clergy and the laity, and his last chapter is on Samuel Sewell's* understanding of his world, as revealed in his diary, and it's strange and sad and alien. (I find the Puritans and their City on a Hill fascinating, but I also think it's the most unappealing utopia anyone has ever imagined.)
___
*(In)famous as the only judge in the Salem witchcraft crisis who made a public apology.
(2020) So this is a book that I should have read for my dissertation but did not find until 15 years too late. It's about religion and popular culture in 17th century New England, and so was actually illuminating for one of my obsessions, the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692.
Hall talks about the ways in which both ordinary people and the learned elite experienced religion in their lives. For most people, this meant most immediately the Bible (and other books: catechisms, psalters, sermons, chapbooks and "penny godlies"), so he's talking also about literacy and print culture, and about the way the Bible saturated the lives of the colonists. (In Samuel Sewell's house, they read aloud from the Bible every evening, from Genesis to Revelations, and when they got to the end, they started all over again at the beginning, and I'm sure Sewell---who was a magistrate, not a minister---was not unique in this.) He also talks about the role of organized worship and the many uses of ritual. And he discusses the controversies of the day (like Antinomianism, the Halfway Covenant, the Quakers), and does a really good job of conveying how something like baptism looked very different in the popular understanding from the way the ministers meant it to be seen. (MINISTERS: Baptism is a sacrament of admission to the church. PEOPLE: Baptism means my children won't go to hell when our shocking infant mortality rate catches them.)
This is an academic book, so the prose is not lively (I *have* read academic books with lively prose, but I can count them on the fingers of one hand), but it's very clearly written and clearly argued.
___
*(In)famous as the only judge in the Salem witchcraft crisis who made a public apology.
(2020) So this is a book that I should have read for my dissertation but did not find until 15 years too late. It's about religion and popular culture in 17th century New England, and so was actually illuminating for one of my obsessions, the Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692.
Hall talks about the ways in which both ordinary people and the learned elite experienced religion in their lives. For most people, this meant most immediately the Bible (and other books: catechisms, psalters, sermons, chapbooks and "penny godlies"), so he's talking also about literacy and print culture, and about the way the Bible saturated the lives of the colonists. (In Samuel Sewell's house, they read aloud from the Bible every evening, from Genesis to Revelations, and when they got to the end, they started all over again at the beginning, and I'm sure Sewell---who was a magistrate, not a minister---was not unique in this.) He also talks about the role of organized worship and the many uses of ritual. And he discusses the controversies of the day (like Antinomianism, the Halfway Covenant, the Quakers), and does a really good job of conveying how something like baptism looked very different in the popular understanding from the way the ministers meant it to be seen. (MINISTERS: Baptism is a sacrament of admission to the church. PEOPLE: Baptism means my children won't go to hell when our shocking infant mortality rate catches them.)
This is an academic book, so the prose is not lively (I *have* read academic books with lively prose, but I can count them on the fingers of one hand), but it's very clearly written and clearly argued.
February 18, 2021
Demonstrating that popular religion in New England did not resemble perfect obedience to the strict precepts of Puritanical faith, David Hall shows instead that the typical New Englander in the 17th century lived with a healthy skepticism of the clergy, even though the boundaries of meaning in 17th century New England were more the product of the clergy’s sermons and books than of any other group’s contributions. Confession and repentance, the ritual motion of the lived religion of the colonies, e.g., was a direct product of popular themes and motifs in the preaching of the clergy, ultimately plastering the prospect of impending doom and judgment over the colonists. Life might be snatched from you at any moment; disaster could strike and initiate the beginnings of the apocalypse (implying that yes, the colonists were fond of trying to use Revelation as a dispensational, interpretative key to history).
Amidst this fear, a culture of portents and omens thrived, again in part because of their prominence in clerical sermons. Earthquakes, lightning, deformations at birth, and whatever other calamity of nature one might encounter were all brought to bear upon the the colonists as penalty for sin and as signals that their judgment cometh. That culture was also driven by the burgeoning printing press trade, which pushed out hack pieces detailing gruesome stories of ominous portents and evil as much if not more so than it produced pastoral books. Almanacs widely circulated, keeping lay people informed about the cosmic bearing of their astrological signs. It would not be unusual, then, for someone to tack from one source of supernatural intrigue to the other — pastoral books and sermons to more popular secular press offerings. The burgeoning print movement thus both expanded and mitigated the influence of the clergy. Moreover, as Hall repeatedly shows, the average layperson himself mediated the messages of their clergy, opting not to participate in communion (for fear of incurring judgment if they were not fully repented of their sins upon participation at the table, as warned by their dear clergy) or supporting the half-way covenant, but not joining a church body in full.
The shared culture of the Puritan clergy and their laity involved the naked exposure of the individual to the judgement (and grace) of God. Against what were seen as Catholic restrictions against liberty, prophesying, and access to the Bible (Hall cites colonists' hatred for Mary Tudor as an example), clergy taught and laypeople owned a reality wherein nothing stood between the individual and knowing God through the Bible, God's word. Moreover, any given portent — whether a lightning bolt observed early in the morning or an omen interpreted publicly in a sermon — could mean destruction for the individual. God’s judgment was a personal court case against you, and so the milieu of fear created in early New England dramatized the colonists’ sense of self in a way that would largely be enhanced, albeit changed, by Enlightenment thinking. In demonstrating all of this, Hall helps us understand our own preoccupation with the self, both in a theological lens and from a sociocultural perspective.
One of Hall’s other achievements is setting the narrative historical stage for the Great Awakening, and in his doing so, helps model Weber’s outline for the development of religions. The Catholic reign under Mary Tudor and shortly preceding much of the history in Worlds of Wonder may be seen as a suppression of enthusiasm. The secular and religious culture of sensational supernatural happenings may be viewed as the swinging of the spiritual modal pendulum away from rigidity and towards popular enthusiasm in ritual practice and religious thinking. Hall pushes the narrative slightly forward from there, dropping his readers off in the early 18th century, where the clergy began to think their congregations too enthusiastic. The clergy then separate from their flocks, at least in theological stances and sermons content. All of those dynamic factors roll up and into the Great Awakening.
Knowingly or not, Hall also sets up an early building block in making the claim that American popular culture (particularly in media consumption) has always taken on a distinctly sensationalist flavor. Hack writers and broadside publishers took full advantage of respected clergy members mention of portents and omens for their own profit and circulation. Intellectuals and the relatively learned read such material with a grain of salt, but Hall suggests that they still participated, finding the material entertaining. His descriptions of laypeople’s consumption of thinly concealed sensationalist (and in this case supernatural) media, where the primary appeal of each piece was its sensationalism, applies directly to a laundry list of American media in the following centuries and certainly remains today. The culture of wonders and portents was not unlike PT Barnum’s fake mermaids, backwoods brawling, blackface, carnival freak shows, escape artists, Evel Knievel (spelling), reality TV, Kanye West, or even just our gossipy obsession with celebrities and athletes.
Despite these impressive achievements, for which Hall has been recognized, he would have benefited from a more creative narrative style and a more robust theological training. Much of Hall’s evidence, especially in the first half of the book, read like a list of trivial historical instances. John Henry saw a bolt of lightning in 1644 near Haverford and predicted in his diary that apocalypse would come through war with the Indians. Katherine Thompson felt the ground shake after a great scandal was exposed in New Lennox. And on and on, often with as uninformative detail as the latter example (and occasionally that omission concerns more important substance even!). Granted, Hall was limited to secondary sources to support his research, and his historical paint-splattering approach confirms the preponderance of the themes he highlights. Theologically, Hall’s knowledge of debates on the half-way covenant, sin & judgment, communion, and several other heated topics fo the time are integral to his understanding of the colonists’ lived religion and ritual practice. But he fails to describe the more unstated reality of premillennial dominance in Puritan theology. Such a worldview was tied up in the early New England version of American exceptionalism — the kind John Winthrop has often been pointed to as a progenitor. So too Hall could have better explained the colonists constant obsession with interpreting natural wonders and calamities as signs of the times — judgment to come or the birth of Armageddon, etc. Yes, the focus from the pulpit on sin and judgment and the clergy’s warnings of the fragility of life were fantastic impetus for the culture of lore and wonders. But so was the dominant overarching theological worldview which rests upon the assumption that Revelation (and the entire Bible) is a document that is to be interpreted literally, and if not literally then as close to literally as possible. In this framework, the return of Christ and the establishment of the New Israel (in this case, the colonies) as the seat of Christ’s millennium-long reign following a bloody war against the anti-Christ were ever imminent. At the very least, the premillennial framework functionally precluded genre-based interpretation of Revelation (i.e., as apocalyptic literature — whatever you think of its margin for error) and encouraged a fearful application of its stories and themes as forecast for judgment amidst the broader implicit backdrop of God’s dispensational movement in history.
Amidst this fear, a culture of portents and omens thrived, again in part because of their prominence in clerical sermons. Earthquakes, lightning, deformations at birth, and whatever other calamity of nature one might encounter were all brought to bear upon the the colonists as penalty for sin and as signals that their judgment cometh. That culture was also driven by the burgeoning printing press trade, which pushed out hack pieces detailing gruesome stories of ominous portents and evil as much if not more so than it produced pastoral books. Almanacs widely circulated, keeping lay people informed about the cosmic bearing of their astrological signs. It would not be unusual, then, for someone to tack from one source of supernatural intrigue to the other — pastoral books and sermons to more popular secular press offerings. The burgeoning print movement thus both expanded and mitigated the influence of the clergy. Moreover, as Hall repeatedly shows, the average layperson himself mediated the messages of their clergy, opting not to participate in communion (for fear of incurring judgment if they were not fully repented of their sins upon participation at the table, as warned by their dear clergy) or supporting the half-way covenant, but not joining a church body in full.
The shared culture of the Puritan clergy and their laity involved the naked exposure of the individual to the judgement (and grace) of God. Against what were seen as Catholic restrictions against liberty, prophesying, and access to the Bible (Hall cites colonists' hatred for Mary Tudor as an example), clergy taught and laypeople owned a reality wherein nothing stood between the individual and knowing God through the Bible, God's word. Moreover, any given portent — whether a lightning bolt observed early in the morning or an omen interpreted publicly in a sermon — could mean destruction for the individual. God’s judgment was a personal court case against you, and so the milieu of fear created in early New England dramatized the colonists’ sense of self in a way that would largely be enhanced, albeit changed, by Enlightenment thinking. In demonstrating all of this, Hall helps us understand our own preoccupation with the self, both in a theological lens and from a sociocultural perspective.
One of Hall’s other achievements is setting the narrative historical stage for the Great Awakening, and in his doing so, helps model Weber’s outline for the development of religions. The Catholic reign under Mary Tudor and shortly preceding much of the history in Worlds of Wonder may be seen as a suppression of enthusiasm. The secular and religious culture of sensational supernatural happenings may be viewed as the swinging of the spiritual modal pendulum away from rigidity and towards popular enthusiasm in ritual practice and religious thinking. Hall pushes the narrative slightly forward from there, dropping his readers off in the early 18th century, where the clergy began to think their congregations too enthusiastic. The clergy then separate from their flocks, at least in theological stances and sermons content. All of those dynamic factors roll up and into the Great Awakening.
Knowingly or not, Hall also sets up an early building block in making the claim that American popular culture (particularly in media consumption) has always taken on a distinctly sensationalist flavor. Hack writers and broadside publishers took full advantage of respected clergy members mention of portents and omens for their own profit and circulation. Intellectuals and the relatively learned read such material with a grain of salt, but Hall suggests that they still participated, finding the material entertaining. His descriptions of laypeople’s consumption of thinly concealed sensationalist (and in this case supernatural) media, where the primary appeal of each piece was its sensationalism, applies directly to a laundry list of American media in the following centuries and certainly remains today. The culture of wonders and portents was not unlike PT Barnum’s fake mermaids, backwoods brawling, blackface, carnival freak shows, escape artists, Evel Knievel (spelling), reality TV, Kanye West, or even just our gossipy obsession with celebrities and athletes.
Despite these impressive achievements, for which Hall has been recognized, he would have benefited from a more creative narrative style and a more robust theological training. Much of Hall’s evidence, especially in the first half of the book, read like a list of trivial historical instances. John Henry saw a bolt of lightning in 1644 near Haverford and predicted in his diary that apocalypse would come through war with the Indians. Katherine Thompson felt the ground shake after a great scandal was exposed in New Lennox. And on and on, often with as uninformative detail as the latter example (and occasionally that omission concerns more important substance even!). Granted, Hall was limited to secondary sources to support his research, and his historical paint-splattering approach confirms the preponderance of the themes he highlights. Theologically, Hall’s knowledge of debates on the half-way covenant, sin & judgment, communion, and several other heated topics fo the time are integral to his understanding of the colonists’ lived religion and ritual practice. But he fails to describe the more unstated reality of premillennial dominance in Puritan theology. Such a worldview was tied up in the early New England version of American exceptionalism — the kind John Winthrop has often been pointed to as a progenitor. So too Hall could have better explained the colonists constant obsession with interpreting natural wonders and calamities as signs of the times — judgment to come or the birth of Armageddon, etc. Yes, the focus from the pulpit on sin and judgment and the clergy’s warnings of the fragility of life were fantastic impetus for the culture of lore and wonders. But so was the dominant overarching theological worldview which rests upon the assumption that Revelation (and the entire Bible) is a document that is to be interpreted literally, and if not literally then as close to literally as possible. In this framework, the return of Christ and the establishment of the New Israel (in this case, the colonies) as the seat of Christ’s millennium-long reign following a bloody war against the anti-Christ were ever imminent. At the very least, the premillennial framework functionally precluded genre-based interpretation of Revelation (i.e., as apocalyptic literature — whatever you think of its margin for error) and encouraged a fearful application of its stories and themes as forecast for judgment amidst the broader implicit backdrop of God’s dispensational movement in history.
June 15, 2020
Covering popular belief in New England. Much more the people in the congregation than those who left it. At least, figuratively. "Horse-shed" members would go out to the horse-shed between the two sermons and gossip instead of attending Sunday school. . .
Discusses the prevalence of literacy and the books sold. How children would learn to read. The penny godlies, whether imported or printed locally, and the much deplored jest books and chivalric romances.
The prevalence of "wonders" whether deemed divine or diabolical. Such incidents as hearing a gunshot or a drummer boy in the absence of a source. Rainbows were particularly favored but comets were an evil sign. The question of whether such things might have natural origins.
The question of "conversion" and the difficulty of attaining full membership in a congregation. Many people hung back for fear of not being good enough. Indeed some regretted their baptism; one woman, confessing to witchcraft, said she had thought she was worse off for it, because she should go on.
Thanksgiving feasts, and fast days, always irregular, and how the almanacs tried to number the months.
Discusses the prevalence of literacy and the books sold. How children would learn to read. The penny godlies, whether imported or printed locally, and the much deplored jest books and chivalric romances.
The prevalence of "wonders" whether deemed divine or diabolical. Such incidents as hearing a gunshot or a drummer boy in the absence of a source. Rainbows were particularly favored but comets were an evil sign. The question of whether such things might have natural origins.
The question of "conversion" and the difficulty of attaining full membership in a congregation. Many people hung back for fear of not being good enough. Indeed some regretted their baptism; one woman, confessing to witchcraft, said she had thought she was worse off for it, because she should go on.
Thanksgiving feasts, and fast days, always irregular, and how the almanacs tried to number the months.
Read
May 1, 2021This book is about the laypeople of early New England and their popular religion. Hall attempts to show how culture and religion interacted. He rejects the idea of two separate religions, one rooted in folk ways of thinking, the other maintained by the clerics. Their church structures were not highly clerical and attendance was voluntary. There was an accomodation between magic and religion. The spoken word was seen as equally sacred as the printed page. Authors and ministers competed with the marketplace for attention of the people. The people feared God, nature, ghosts, and witches. They believed in astrology, apolalyptic prophecy, and natural philosophy and their frames of meaning were overalpping. Tension developed between the "learned culture" and the printed version of a world of wonders. Many of the "signs" pointed to the judgment of God. In moments of crisis, people responded in patterned ways to reduce tension (e.g. rituals). Writings of the laypeople did not ever condemn people to hell. Laypeople saw a natural interweaving of the natural and the supernatural. Human feelings of anger and revenge were absorbed into religion through witch-hunting etc...
January 14, 2018
Introduction
This is a study of popular religion, but in defining popular religion as a faith of the people Hall is not cordoning this off from the religion of the ministerial class. Unlike Europe, there was no great divide between the aristocratic clergy (and their bourgeois allies) ranged against a superstitious populace. Heirs of the Reformation, the protestants of the middling sort that came to New England were not of a separate social order from their clergy. Nor were the clergy averse to incorporating much of the magical into their cosmology. Enriched by the leaven of near universal literacy, the New Englanders - lay and clergy alike - partook of a print culture that set them apart from the divisive world of Europe. Social, cultural and economic homogeneity was the cause for this unique set of conditions.
In this world of "middling sorts," clergy authority was always checked by lay involvement. Though not to say that the people were consistently "insubordinate", it was through contest and negotiation that leadership was shaped and accommodated the views of the people. Much of what happened was driven by the fact that those who came to the New England colonies were dissenters who believed generally in the value of a liberal market economy, as opposed to the mercantilism of the mother country. And this meant a more contested ecclesiastical authority as well.
In defining popular religion, Hall also wants to avoid being constrained by what happens within the meeting house. Instead, he tries to include "horse shed Christianity," or the less perfect observance of religious practice that took palace outside the bounds of formal practice. Above all, Hall argues for the pervasiveness of religious values in the popular culture a culture in which the meanings which people assigned to sacred events were not always derived from official clerical dispensation.
A World of Wonders
The colonists lived in a world where the supernatural intervention of both God and the devil were seen all around. The colonists came from an England where broadside ballads, chapbooks and pamphlets, as well as more weighty volumes called folios, spoke of "wonders" such as "[t]ales of witchcraft and the Devil, of comets, hailstorms, monster births, and apparitions." (p. 72) Thomas Beard's Theater of Gods Judgment, William Turner's Compleat History of the Most Remarkable Providences, and Stephen Batman's The Doome warning all men to Judgmente all used stories and images drawn from the same world as the broadsides and chapbooks. Learned and unschooled, all drew their lessons from these "wonder books," not least of which was the Bible itself.
The impact of the ancients was still ever present, especially as related to the meteorology of the Greeks and Romans. Elizabethans took very seriously the predictions of the weather in medieval and renaissance almanacs. With the coming of the Reformation, the resurgence of apocalyptic prophesy was added to the source of wonders. And as the men of learning wrestled with "monstrous births" and other phenomena under the rubric of "natural history," they found signs from heaven for the punishment of sin or apocalyptic warnings. Above all, however, the main source of wonders was God's Providence. In this way, the language of wonders was a universal one that all could speak.
This lore of wonders passed to the new world via the trans-Atlantic book trade. Along with the books came a mentality of wonders. Increase Mather's Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providence was firmly in the wonder book tradition, as were histories by Edward Johnson, William Bradford and John Winthrop. The notebooks of ministers and students also recorded wonder stories, such as the story of a baby at 30 weeks telling his nurse that "this is a hard world". Increase Mather heard of such tales and included them in the sermons he delivered and they made it into his written works. Colonists also believed in the prophetic power of dreams, in the presence of shape shifting dogs and the power of white magic to combat the Devil's black magic -- all of which drew heavily on the culture of folk religion from England. Tales included in Mather's Essay drew heavily on folk wisdom and lore.
And God's justice was also meted out in the form of providential wonders. John Winthrop recorded the intervention of the almighty in the drowning of drunkards, the special acts of providence that revealed murders' identities, the death of people who had worked on the Sabbath. But God's Providence worked to protect the righteous. As the minister at Roxbury, John Eliot, recorded - though two wayward servants who went to gather oysters were drown, a deacon's daughter who sustained a grievous head wound was healed. In an insecure world wracked with violence, the interpretation of wonders gave some semblance of meaning and order to life.
As in Reformation Europe, so Wonders were also caught up in the political struggles of the colonists. Anne Hutchinson, the prophetess eventually expelled form Boston and exiled to Rhode Island, was preaching against the local divines for teaching "works." A woman turning prophesy against the men in power, her wonders were interpreted as having been inspired by the Devil. Hutchinson and those who followed in her wake all used the language of wonders to undermine and attack political authority. "Crossing and recrossing a line that was difficult to fix, the radicals played on ambiguities intrinsic to the role of the prophet." (p. 98)
Ambiguities were also exploited by others to their own ends as well. Fortune tellers, healers and magicians all played upon this aspect of the world of wonders. Witchcraft trials took place, then, in a world of wonders where contexts over the meaning of wonders were also political contests. This was a world suffused with folk belief in the power of horseshoes and the ability to stop the evil power of a witch by making a cake of her urine. The leading elites, threatened by the use of magic for political ends which undermined their authority, moved to declare all prophesy off limits. Thomas Weld's report on the still births of Mary Dyer and Anne Hutchinson cast them as two instances of monstrous births among thirty and Hutchinson's prophesy was declared by the magistrates to have originated with Satan. Referring constantly to the Anabaptists and Thomas Muenster in Germany, the ministers of Boston decried the dangers of unregulated and uncontrolled interpretations.
As political events proceeded through King Philip's War, witchcraft trials to the dissolution of the charter government, further wars on Indians, the ministers of New England sought to interpret portents in ways that furthered their own agendas for reform. Among the most skillful in this art was Increase Mather, who sought to reinforce the special "covenanted" mission of New England through the interpretation of wonders. As contest over the meaning of wonders increased, Mather fought for control and sought to contain dissent. In so doing he became increasing selective in the wonders that he credited, participating in the more general "reform of popular culture" of the later 17th C. Separating themselves from the world of wonders, they also separated themselves from the popular culture as well. Increase's son Cotton continued along this path, shoring up the secular authority of the ministry by reasserting this group's claims to the exclusive ability to interpret wonders.
Increasingly the printers of chapbooks and broadsides began to diverge from the moral message contained in earlier published works. Nathaniel Crouch (penname R. Burton), for instance, published books meant to sell. Learned treatises, according to Couch, had been the undoing of many a printer. Instead, his publications in the 1680s aimed at the broadest possible audience. Couch dropped the moralizing of earlier works and focused on the entertainment value of wonders.
Other Readings:
See the University of Colorado at Boulder Plymouth and Puritan Historiography Site
Pekarek points to a number of interesting articles in his annotated bibliography of Puritanism in New England. His summary of David D. Hall's WMQ article "On Common Ground" is particularly helpful in understanding the flow of Puritan historiography up to 1987 and helps contextualize Hall's work on "Wonders."
(See also David D. Hall, "Religion and Society: Problems and Reconsiderations," in Greene and Pole, eds., Colonial British America.)
Francis T. Butts' "The Myth of Perry Miller" (AHR 1982) is also helpful in understanding the context of today's interest in a broader range of religious life and experience. Butts recounts the attacks by scholars directed at Miller as straw man, his "narrative of declension," as a supposed opponent of social history, and as one who denied change over time in the evolution of the Puritan mind. Butts seeks to rescue Miller from the attacks of the distortions of Robert G. Pope (in his denial of "declension') and the more genteel "distancing" of David D. Hall (in his claim that Miller denied change over time). As scholars have more recently pointed out, Miller was probably right about "decline" in New England -- but probably not about decline everywhere else. As Jon Butler points out, the American colonies were "awash in a sea of faith".
This is a study of popular religion, but in defining popular religion as a faith of the people Hall is not cordoning this off from the religion of the ministerial class. Unlike Europe, there was no great divide between the aristocratic clergy (and their bourgeois allies) ranged against a superstitious populace. Heirs of the Reformation, the protestants of the middling sort that came to New England were not of a separate social order from their clergy. Nor were the clergy averse to incorporating much of the magical into their cosmology. Enriched by the leaven of near universal literacy, the New Englanders - lay and clergy alike - partook of a print culture that set them apart from the divisive world of Europe. Social, cultural and economic homogeneity was the cause for this unique set of conditions.
In this world of "middling sorts," clergy authority was always checked by lay involvement. Though not to say that the people were consistently "insubordinate", it was through contest and negotiation that leadership was shaped and accommodated the views of the people. Much of what happened was driven by the fact that those who came to the New England colonies were dissenters who believed generally in the value of a liberal market economy, as opposed to the mercantilism of the mother country. And this meant a more contested ecclesiastical authority as well.
In defining popular religion, Hall also wants to avoid being constrained by what happens within the meeting house. Instead, he tries to include "horse shed Christianity," or the less perfect observance of religious practice that took palace outside the bounds of formal practice. Above all, Hall argues for the pervasiveness of religious values in the popular culture a culture in which the meanings which people assigned to sacred events were not always derived from official clerical dispensation.
A World of Wonders
The colonists lived in a world where the supernatural intervention of both God and the devil were seen all around. The colonists came from an England where broadside ballads, chapbooks and pamphlets, as well as more weighty volumes called folios, spoke of "wonders" such as "[t]ales of witchcraft and the Devil, of comets, hailstorms, monster births, and apparitions." (p. 72) Thomas Beard's Theater of Gods Judgment, William Turner's Compleat History of the Most Remarkable Providences, and Stephen Batman's The Doome warning all men to Judgmente all used stories and images drawn from the same world as the broadsides and chapbooks. Learned and unschooled, all drew their lessons from these "wonder books," not least of which was the Bible itself.
The impact of the ancients was still ever present, especially as related to the meteorology of the Greeks and Romans. Elizabethans took very seriously the predictions of the weather in medieval and renaissance almanacs. With the coming of the Reformation, the resurgence of apocalyptic prophesy was added to the source of wonders. And as the men of learning wrestled with "monstrous births" and other phenomena under the rubric of "natural history," they found signs from heaven for the punishment of sin or apocalyptic warnings. Above all, however, the main source of wonders was God's Providence. In this way, the language of wonders was a universal one that all could speak.
This lore of wonders passed to the new world via the trans-Atlantic book trade. Along with the books came a mentality of wonders. Increase Mather's Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providence was firmly in the wonder book tradition, as were histories by Edward Johnson, William Bradford and John Winthrop. The notebooks of ministers and students also recorded wonder stories, such as the story of a baby at 30 weeks telling his nurse that "this is a hard world". Increase Mather heard of such tales and included them in the sermons he delivered and they made it into his written works. Colonists also believed in the prophetic power of dreams, in the presence of shape shifting dogs and the power of white magic to combat the Devil's black magic -- all of which drew heavily on the culture of folk religion from England. Tales included in Mather's Essay drew heavily on folk wisdom and lore.
And God's justice was also meted out in the form of providential wonders. John Winthrop recorded the intervention of the almighty in the drowning of drunkards, the special acts of providence that revealed murders' identities, the death of people who had worked on the Sabbath. But God's Providence worked to protect the righteous. As the minister at Roxbury, John Eliot, recorded - though two wayward servants who went to gather oysters were drown, a deacon's daughter who sustained a grievous head wound was healed. In an insecure world wracked with violence, the interpretation of wonders gave some semblance of meaning and order to life.
As in Reformation Europe, so Wonders were also caught up in the political struggles of the colonists. Anne Hutchinson, the prophetess eventually expelled form Boston and exiled to Rhode Island, was preaching against the local divines for teaching "works." A woman turning prophesy against the men in power, her wonders were interpreted as having been inspired by the Devil. Hutchinson and those who followed in her wake all used the language of wonders to undermine and attack political authority. "Crossing and recrossing a line that was difficult to fix, the radicals played on ambiguities intrinsic to the role of the prophet." (p. 98)
Ambiguities were also exploited by others to their own ends as well. Fortune tellers, healers and magicians all played upon this aspect of the world of wonders. Witchcraft trials took place, then, in a world of wonders where contexts over the meaning of wonders were also political contests. This was a world suffused with folk belief in the power of horseshoes and the ability to stop the evil power of a witch by making a cake of her urine. The leading elites, threatened by the use of magic for political ends which undermined their authority, moved to declare all prophesy off limits. Thomas Weld's report on the still births of Mary Dyer and Anne Hutchinson cast them as two instances of monstrous births among thirty and Hutchinson's prophesy was declared by the magistrates to have originated with Satan. Referring constantly to the Anabaptists and Thomas Muenster in Germany, the ministers of Boston decried the dangers of unregulated and uncontrolled interpretations.
As political events proceeded through King Philip's War, witchcraft trials to the dissolution of the charter government, further wars on Indians, the ministers of New England sought to interpret portents in ways that furthered their own agendas for reform. Among the most skillful in this art was Increase Mather, who sought to reinforce the special "covenanted" mission of New England through the interpretation of wonders. As contest over the meaning of wonders increased, Mather fought for control and sought to contain dissent. In so doing he became increasing selective in the wonders that he credited, participating in the more general "reform of popular culture" of the later 17th C. Separating themselves from the world of wonders, they also separated themselves from the popular culture as well. Increase's son Cotton continued along this path, shoring up the secular authority of the ministry by reasserting this group's claims to the exclusive ability to interpret wonders.
Increasingly the printers of chapbooks and broadsides began to diverge from the moral message contained in earlier published works. Nathaniel Crouch (penname R. Burton), for instance, published books meant to sell. Learned treatises, according to Couch, had been the undoing of many a printer. Instead, his publications in the 1680s aimed at the broadest possible audience. Couch dropped the moralizing of earlier works and focused on the entertainment value of wonders.
Other Readings:
See the University of Colorado at Boulder Plymouth and Puritan Historiography Site
Pekarek points to a number of interesting articles in his annotated bibliography of Puritanism in New England. His summary of David D. Hall's WMQ article "On Common Ground" is particularly helpful in understanding the flow of Puritan historiography up to 1987 and helps contextualize Hall's work on "Wonders."
(See also David D. Hall, "Religion and Society: Problems and Reconsiderations," in Greene and Pole, eds., Colonial British America.)
Francis T. Butts' "The Myth of Perry Miller" (AHR 1982) is also helpful in understanding the context of today's interest in a broader range of religious life and experience. Butts recounts the attacks by scholars directed at Miller as straw man, his "narrative of declension," as a supposed opponent of social history, and as one who denied change over time in the evolution of the Puritan mind. Butts seeks to rescue Miller from the attacks of the distortions of Robert G. Pope (in his denial of "declension') and the more genteel "distancing" of David D. Hall (in his claim that Miller denied change over time). As scholars have more recently pointed out, Miller was probably right about "decline" in New England -- but probably not about decline everywhere else. As Jon Butler points out, the American colonies were "awash in a sea of faith".
July 8, 2008
A wonderful study of Puritan thought in early America. If you think that people in the past think just like we do, try this book on for size. They really did see God in everything, and Hall shows this in several interesting ways. I loved this book.
January 26, 2011
Outstanding study of the Puritan mindset and world view.
February 18, 2023
David Hall’s book Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment is a in depth look into the history of 17th century New England religion and its impact on everyday life. Hall does a wonderful job describing religion from a bottom up perspective, focusing on the small views, rituals, and practices observed by the common people, rather than of the clergy. In his own words “this book is about religion as lay men and women knew and practiced it” (9). His purpose is to give us a perspective into life, culture, and religion of the average 17th century New England Puritan.
Throughout the book, the theme of the common man is abundantly clear. Instead of focusing on the experience of one man or one city within New England, Hall uses hundreds of examples of New Englander experiences from all walks of life and occupations. He is careful to point out the idea that experiences were not always shared, and that certain examples may have only survived due to their uniqueness. Hall argues that neither the extreme piety preached by the clergy, nor the border-line pagan witch hunts were common among New Englanders (24). While reading this work, we can begin to paint a picture, not only of the dramatic experiences of the Pilgrims, Mary Rowlandson, or from the Salem witch trials, but of everyday life for the average New Englander.
It is, of course, impossible to miss the underlying theme of religion and its effects on Puritan life. Hall traces back almost every part of New England culture to their religion. From the books they read, their general lack of festivals or holidays, and their beliefs in everyday wonders and miracles, we can infer religion was at the heart and soul of culture to even the average New Englander. Hall also argues that the lack of separation between the religion of the clergy, and the religion of the laymen is the key difference between New England and Europe (9-11).
The book is divided into five distinct chapters along with an introduction and conclusion. Hall spends most of the rather long introduction discussing the religious situation in New England and its difference from Western Europe. The next four chapters delve into Hall’s main topics and their relation to religion. The first chapter reviews the effects literacy and written texts had on the Puritans and how religion dictated what they wrote and read. The beliefs of the Puritans were not formed solely from the Bible, but also from the wide variety of supernatural and pagan experiences, revealed in the second chapter. The center of Christian life, the church, is Hall's next topic as he traces the importance of church membership, baptism, and local ministers in the third chapter. The last major topic in Worlds of Wonder, is the many rituals practiced by New Englanders, including the famous witch trials. Hall ties all these topics back to the underlying theme of religion and, in the book's last chapter, shows how they all work together, within Samuel Sewall’s life as told by his diary.
The topical organization of the book suits its goal, not providing a chronological history, but helping us understand life in 17th century New England. His discussion of the life of Samual Sewall fits well as the last chapter, tying together the topics previously discussed. For sources, Hall uses a great many secondary cultural studies from scholarly sources, as well as numerous primary accounts from journals, records, almanacs and written sermons from Puritan New Englanders. Hall expertly combines primary accounts with studies by other historians to create a smooth narrative of religion in New England.
Hall’s greatest contribution in a historical sense, is using the lives and experiences of everyday people to construct a view on Puritan religion, rather than using Puritan religion, told by clergy, to view the lives of everyday people. This book, while a long and arduous read, is a must for any interested in the lives of common folk in early America, beyond what you can learn from a textbook. This microhistory of one culture in one time and place provides a unique perspective we often miss when studying global or even American history. The life Hall describes of early Americans is so vastly different from our own, yet is critical in understanding the next 300 years of American history.
Throughout the book, the theme of the common man is abundantly clear. Instead of focusing on the experience of one man or one city within New England, Hall uses hundreds of examples of New Englander experiences from all walks of life and occupations. He is careful to point out the idea that experiences were not always shared, and that certain examples may have only survived due to their uniqueness. Hall argues that neither the extreme piety preached by the clergy, nor the border-line pagan witch hunts were common among New Englanders (24). While reading this work, we can begin to paint a picture, not only of the dramatic experiences of the Pilgrims, Mary Rowlandson, or from the Salem witch trials, but of everyday life for the average New Englander.
It is, of course, impossible to miss the underlying theme of religion and its effects on Puritan life. Hall traces back almost every part of New England culture to their religion. From the books they read, their general lack of festivals or holidays, and their beliefs in everyday wonders and miracles, we can infer religion was at the heart and soul of culture to even the average New Englander. Hall also argues that the lack of separation between the religion of the clergy, and the religion of the laymen is the key difference between New England and Europe (9-11).
The book is divided into five distinct chapters along with an introduction and conclusion. Hall spends most of the rather long introduction discussing the religious situation in New England and its difference from Western Europe. The next four chapters delve into Hall’s main topics and their relation to religion. The first chapter reviews the effects literacy and written texts had on the Puritans and how religion dictated what they wrote and read. The beliefs of the Puritans were not formed solely from the Bible, but also from the wide variety of supernatural and pagan experiences, revealed in the second chapter. The center of Christian life, the church, is Hall's next topic as he traces the importance of church membership, baptism, and local ministers in the third chapter. The last major topic in Worlds of Wonder, is the many rituals practiced by New Englanders, including the famous witch trials. Hall ties all these topics back to the underlying theme of religion and, in the book's last chapter, shows how they all work together, within Samuel Sewall’s life as told by his diary.
The topical organization of the book suits its goal, not providing a chronological history, but helping us understand life in 17th century New England. His discussion of the life of Samual Sewall fits well as the last chapter, tying together the topics previously discussed. For sources, Hall uses a great many secondary cultural studies from scholarly sources, as well as numerous primary accounts from journals, records, almanacs and written sermons from Puritan New Englanders. Hall expertly combines primary accounts with studies by other historians to create a smooth narrative of religion in New England.
Hall’s greatest contribution in a historical sense, is using the lives and experiences of everyday people to construct a view on Puritan religion, rather than using Puritan religion, told by clergy, to view the lives of everyday people. This book, while a long and arduous read, is a must for any interested in the lives of common folk in early America, beyond what you can learn from a textbook. This microhistory of one culture in one time and place provides a unique perspective we often miss when studying global or even American history. The life Hall describes of early Americans is so vastly different from our own, yet is critical in understanding the next 300 years of American history.
November 11, 2020
A fascinating in-depth cultural history of Puritan New England. Hall's groundbreaking work opens new vistas into a world that's been so thoroughly explored, you'd expect there not to be anything left to say. But Hall manages to unearth new insights into Puritan literacy culture, belief in magic, and tension between clergy and laypeople in a "world of wonder."
The impression one gets is that to even speak of "Puritan New England" is something of an oversimplification. That "Puritan" had different meanings depending on whether you were preaching from the pulpit or sitting in the pews, and that although the stereotypically austere Puritan lifestyle isn't without its basis in reality, enforcing that austerity was always contested.
This is well worth reading for a glimpse into the life of some of America's earliest colonists, although reading it does leave the impression that Native Americans and African slaves simply didn't exist in and around the colonies.
The impression one gets is that to even speak of "Puritan New England" is something of an oversimplification. That "Puritan" had different meanings depending on whether you were preaching from the pulpit or sitting in the pews, and that although the stereotypically austere Puritan lifestyle isn't without its basis in reality, enforcing that austerity was always contested.
This is well worth reading for a glimpse into the life of some of America's earliest colonists, although reading it does leave the impression that Native Americans and African slaves simply didn't exist in and around the colonies.
December 2, 2024
Overall, I liked this book a lot. I thought it covered the subject matter in a very comprehensive fashion, but at times it was difficult to follow along with what Hall was talking about so it was easy to lose focus. It's definitely not all equally interesting, and I felt burnt out by the end of the book. Still, there was some nuggets of knowledge that are very valuable and I think Hall is a very capable writer.
October 6, 2022
an interesting perspective of puritan culture, but i had trouble with how much the work itself changed in genre. i also felt like hall’s categories were not very helpful in containing his research. still, a fascinating and vivid view of puritan culture.
October 6, 2024
4.5! This book was filled with interesting and shocking information. I did not want to put it down, but after a while it got especially heavy and I was slow to finish. Amazing rituals, beliefs and stories brought to the New World from across the Atlantic Ocean. Wow.
Want to read
November 20, 2022Cited by Kelly Wisecup as further source of explanation of Thanksgiving in chapter 4
May 1, 2024
Top notch. Wonderful resource by one of the best ever historians of the era.
October 1, 2013
In his book, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment, David D. Hall writes about popular religious beliefs in New England during the seventeenth century. Hall rejects the notion that popular religion exists in opposition to official religion. Instead, he argues that popular religion exists as a synergy of both the beliefs of the clergy and lay practitioners of a faith. The author also argues that the Puritans of New England developed a society that was characterized by social, political, and religious ambiguity. Ambiguity and contention between the clergy and the lay church were the driving force behind and the product of popular religion in New England during the period discussed in Hall’s book.
Halls book is written in purely thematic format. Each chapter after the book’s introduction deals with a different theme. The first theme discussed in the book is the importance of print literature, especially the Bible and Psalm books, to the Puritans of New England. The ambiguity of religious activity and belief, and the conflict between lay Christians and the clergy can be seen in the importance that was placed on individual interpretation of the word of God and the efforts on the behalf of the learned to create authoritative interpretations of scripture. The second theme that is handled in book is the very real world of wonders in which the people of New England lived. In this world of wonders one can see the ambiguity of a culture that believed that natural disasters were the result of God’s judgment on people who had failed to live a pious life and the emerging ideas of the enlightenment which argued that those same disasters were the result of natural processes. The next theme presented in the book is centered on the importance of the meetings house to the system of beliefs in New England. In the meeting house one came into contact with the concept of the halfway covenant. Grounded in the fear of taking the sacrament of communion unworthily, the halfway covenant allowed Christians to receive the sacrament of Baptism and not run the risk of taking the communion unworthily. This is a great example of the ambiguous mental state that prevailed in Puritan New England. Having heard about the importance of taking the communion from their preachers, the lay population of New England developed a concept that seems to have contradicted itself. The final theme analyzed by Hall is the importance of ritual to the Puritans of New England. Ritual permeated every aspect of life in New England. One of the most important rituals of New England was that of confession. Confession of sins in the presence of the congregation, confession of criminal activity or of witch craft, and confession of wrongs committed against one’s neighbor, were all a major part of life for New Englanders. Hall’s book ends with a description of the life of Samuel Sewall, a resident of seventeenth century Boston. At the end of the book, Samuel Sewall’s life is presented as a way of reviewing the main points and arguments of the work and providing a final confirmation for Hall’s arguments.
Hall uses a wide variety of sources in his book which include personal journals, psalm books, popular literature from seventeenth century New England, sermons, and court records. All of these sources are used to illustrate a world permeated by religious ambiguity and tension. A great example is taken from the minister Mather’s treatise on the comet. Mather states that “there are those who think, that inasmuch as Comets may be supposed to proceed from natural causes, there is no speaking voice of Heaven in them…” For Mather, science and religion could coexist.
Question: The last chapter of Hall’s book is based on the life of Samuel Sewall as taken from his personal journal. As stated earlier, Sewall’s life is presented as confirmation for Hall’s argument. For this to be the case, Sewall would have to have to be representative of both the clergy and the lay Puritan population of New England. Is this possible?
Halls book is written in purely thematic format. Each chapter after the book’s introduction deals with a different theme. The first theme discussed in the book is the importance of print literature, especially the Bible and Psalm books, to the Puritans of New England. The ambiguity of religious activity and belief, and the conflict between lay Christians and the clergy can be seen in the importance that was placed on individual interpretation of the word of God and the efforts on the behalf of the learned to create authoritative interpretations of scripture. The second theme that is handled in book is the very real world of wonders in which the people of New England lived. In this world of wonders one can see the ambiguity of a culture that believed that natural disasters were the result of God’s judgment on people who had failed to live a pious life and the emerging ideas of the enlightenment which argued that those same disasters were the result of natural processes. The next theme presented in the book is centered on the importance of the meetings house to the system of beliefs in New England. In the meeting house one came into contact with the concept of the halfway covenant. Grounded in the fear of taking the sacrament of communion unworthily, the halfway covenant allowed Christians to receive the sacrament of Baptism and not run the risk of taking the communion unworthily. This is a great example of the ambiguous mental state that prevailed in Puritan New England. Having heard about the importance of taking the communion from their preachers, the lay population of New England developed a concept that seems to have contradicted itself. The final theme analyzed by Hall is the importance of ritual to the Puritans of New England. Ritual permeated every aspect of life in New England. One of the most important rituals of New England was that of confession. Confession of sins in the presence of the congregation, confession of criminal activity or of witch craft, and confession of wrongs committed against one’s neighbor, were all a major part of life for New Englanders. Hall’s book ends with a description of the life of Samuel Sewall, a resident of seventeenth century Boston. At the end of the book, Samuel Sewall’s life is presented as a way of reviewing the main points and arguments of the work and providing a final confirmation for Hall’s arguments.
Hall uses a wide variety of sources in his book which include personal journals, psalm books, popular literature from seventeenth century New England, sermons, and court records. All of these sources are used to illustrate a world permeated by religious ambiguity and tension. A great example is taken from the minister Mather’s treatise on the comet. Mather states that “there are those who think, that inasmuch as Comets may be supposed to proceed from natural causes, there is no speaking voice of Heaven in them…” For Mather, science and religion could coexist.
Question: The last chapter of Hall’s book is based on the life of Samuel Sewall as taken from his personal journal. As stated earlier, Sewall’s life is presented as confirmation for Hall’s argument. For this to be the case, Sewall would have to have to be representative of both the clergy and the lay Puritan population of New England. Is this possible?
February 20, 2013
I really enjoyed Hall's book, but I'm having trouble getting my thoughts in order on it because I didn't have to write about it for class. This is another of those must-reads for anyone interested in American religious history, or New England history, or colonial history...puritan history, etc. The real innovation here is that we are talking about average folks, and not solely learned ministers who published sermons and kept diaries. Hall is interested in the religious worlds of your typical colonial New England farmers, who attended church and read the Bible but didn't engage in scholarly musings all the time. He makes a lot of interesting points. For one thing, he notes that there was a lot of common ground between the lay people and the clergy, especially early on, in the 1600s. Later, the clergy would get more and more gentrified, and they would try to put distance between themselves and their flock, but early on to a large extent the two groups shared this vision of the world as a place filled with a certain holy magic. I also got the impression that people had a lot of anxiety and outright fear in those times - any positive event could be a sign of God's favor, but anything that went wrong could be seen as God's judgement. When the Indians rose up in King Philip's War, New Englanders believed that God was punishing the colonists for failing as Christians. When children died of disease, parents worried that this was God punishing the parents for not being sufficiently pious. Many people believed that murderers would be miraculously revealed by God - for example, if you made a suspect touch a corpse and it started bleeding, then God was condemning the suspect. Hall points out that the clergy and lay people both believed in this stuff.
Hall comes up with a good term in this book - "horse shed Christians." He points out that even back in the 17th century, a lot of New Englanders attended church without becoming members or participating in communion...they were there to hear the sermon and chat with neighbors in the horse shed afterwards. I like that...horse shed Christians. I think a lot of people that I grew up with are the modern day equivalent - coffee hour Christians. Listen to the nice service and then have some cookies and coffee and visit and not think too much about it all. I know that I shouldn't project like this into the past, and it is bad to start thinking that people haven't changed at all in three hundred years. But that's what I like about books like this about popular religion...it is so easy sometimes to spot the human qualities that linger through the generations.
Hall comes up with a good term in this book - "horse shed Christians." He points out that even back in the 17th century, a lot of New Englanders attended church without becoming members or participating in communion...they were there to hear the sermon and chat with neighbors in the horse shed afterwards. I like that...horse shed Christians. I think a lot of people that I grew up with are the modern day equivalent - coffee hour Christians. Listen to the nice service and then have some cookies and coffee and visit and not think too much about it all. I know that I shouldn't project like this into the past, and it is bad to start thinking that people haven't changed at all in three hundred years. But that's what I like about books like this about popular religion...it is so easy sometimes to spot the human qualities that linger through the generations.
December 2, 2014
Hall argues that popular religion in 17th century New England was characterized by Elizabethan tradition (despite modernizing influences in other aspects of society) and embedded in a culture of literacy. While New England was in many ways socially distinct from European society, folk traditions remained intact. Prevailing beliefs in Divine Providence and “Wonders” (the occult / Providential miracles), encompassed meteorology, astrology, apocalyptic prophecy, natural history, and magic. New Englanders’ worldview was closely connected to print culture and a democratic extension of literacy that was rooted in the Protestant Reformation, which placed religion with a vernacular tradition with widely accessible language and images. Popular themes included the presence of the Devil, a fear of dying suddenly (particularly in the night), the immediacy of hell, and despair over unworthiness. In a culture that secularized calendar observance, weddings, funerals, and even the meeting house space, unity of community was grounded in a common social ethics that revolved around personal responsibility and the rituals of prayer, fasting, and confession.
September 8, 2015
Hall is a master. This is an examination of how the literacy of New England colonial laypeople affected their relationship with the clergy. Hall shows how literacy, print culture, the belief in wonders, the use of the meeting house, and liturgy (in both sacred and secular spaces) allowed laypeople more freedom of conscience than is typically ascribed to them in most historical analyses. He discusses these aforementioned topics and then brings them all to bear on the analysis of one man. The final chapter seems a little cautious after all the groundwork he laid beforehand. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating book. I would read it again in a heartbeat.
June 20, 2014
Hall masterfully displays the role of religion, the supernatural and "wonders" in Puritan New England society. Emphasizing the ways in which wonders permeated all aspects of colonial life, Hall challenges traditional narratives by arguing for a much more ambiguous society and culture wherein the popular beliefs of the lay and educated become much more complicated.
January 15, 2015
Packed with detail about individual practices, thoughts, experiences, this book gives insight into the experience of early American Congregationalists which yields some interesting surprises. Among them, the anxiety around full membership and how it is linked to the moral responsibility one has at the Lord's table as much as the burden of providing a testimony of saving grace.
February 15, 2015
Excellent book about the nexus of religion and magic in New England in the seventeenth century. Provides context for accusations of witchcraft and witch trials in Salem. Assigned in a graduate class on British Colonial America.
October 19, 2013
The chapter on literacy in New England makes this book. Extremely interesting.
February 18, 2015
Pretty interesting book. Insightful look at the Puritans and how literacy rates were raised by the Bible.
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