The Faithful Shepherd: A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century, With a New Introduction

by David D. Hall

This description of the Americanization of a European institution, the Puritan ministry as it was transported to the New England colonies in the seventeenth century, offers a host of new insights into American religious history. By focusing on such areas as the ministers’ authority, church membership, and ecclesiastical organization, David D. Hall shows that, although the effects of the American experience might be considered liberalizing or democratizing in the first years of settlement, during the entire course of the seventeenth century the New World environment produced an institutional development that returned the churches to forms and doctrines that existed before the emigration from Europe.

The Faithful Shepherd not only sustains a bold thesis about Americanization but also affords the reader one of the freshest and most comprehensive histories of the seventeenth-century New England mind and society. This new printing contains a new introduction reflecting on how our understanding of seventeenth-century New England has developed since the book was first published.

Genres: History

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Michael Beatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Faithful Shepherd” explores the Puritan ideal of pastoral ministry within the context of the New England experience. David Hall skillfully navigates a wide array of sources to craft the story of the congregational way in New England. This volume is a great addition to any library, especially for those interested in American civil religion and the ongoing influence of the Puritans.

[Peter Bringe · Rating 5 out of 5]

One takeaway from this book is that New England churches were most radically Congregationalist in the 1630s and that from that time there was tension between those who defended that system and those who sought to modify it toward presbyterianism.

I have admiration for the New England Puritans, but a consistent takeaway I draw from studying them is an appreciation for Presbyterianism.

Also, I find that their history shows that their heirs are not only found in modern Congregationalist churches, but also in Baptist and Presbyterian churches (the directions these two wings of Congregationalism tended toward).

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of early New England's religious practices and views, the frankly apocalyptical views, the problems such that their dreams of easy conversions turned into half the population not members of church and so not eligible to serve in government, and how it shifted.

A bit of hard slogging

[Susie Meister]

This history of New England religion/minstry argue that the "Americanization" of religion as argued by many scholars was really just English religion in new circumstances. Hall believes it was "imported from England." The title refers to the idea that ministers were called to inspire as well as condemn, which was an unstable position that resulted in quarrelling in England and America. Freedom was the center of Puritan evangelism--freedom men received from grace to follow God. There was tension between keeping the law and not killing men's spirits ane leaders sought the "middle way." Hall argues that while the frontier/wilderness had an effect, the form of the church came from Calvin and the crisis of the 1630s. The Puritan belief that God would return soon inspired a need to close the doors of the church to all but the pure (the visibly elect) and the state must serve the will of God. Immigration made it even more difficult as a variety of faiths and perspectives were represented.

[Gretchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry but very informative and a fascinating subject.

[David Vanness]

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