Blessed Assurance? Depraved Saints and the Problem of Knowledge in New England, 1630-1820

by James S. Lamborn

Blessed Assurance? examines the ways in which Calvinist/Puritan theologians in New England and their philosophical contemporaries in Europe, primarily England, addressed the moral dimension of knowing beyond the problem of human finitude. Utilizing Augustine and Calvin as points of departure, this study explores how certain New England theologians handled the doctrine of assurance of salvation while maintaining a conception of human depravity, integral to which is the human capacity for self-deception. The primary theologian-ministers considered include John Cotton, Thomas Shepard, Solomon Stoddard, Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Hopkins, and Timothy Dwight. For these divines, the problem of sin and self-knowledge was not entirely resolved at the point of conversion since they maintained that even believers were tainted by a residue of depravity. In an age when religion, morality, and government were assumed interdependent, the need to be sure about oneself and the need to prove the certain foundation for life on earth as well as the life to come made the issue of knowledge a social problem as well as an individual dilemma. Thus, these theologians are placed in their broader intellectual and political contexts in which are considered the philosophical tools and concepts they borrowed and engaged. The primary philosophers considered include Peter Ramus, René Descartes, Francis Bacon, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and Thomas Reid. Politically, the arguments of these ministers of God are examined for the hegemonies they sought to establish and maintain and to see how they adjusted to the changes of time, transforming the medieval fictive community of Corpus Christianum to that of the Christian nation

424 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published April 1, 2012