The Precisianist Strain: Disciplinary Religion and Antinomian Backlash in Puritanism to 1638 (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia)

In an examination of transatlantic Puritanism from 1570 to 1638, Theodore Dwight Bozeman analyzes the quest for purity through sanctification. The word Puritan, he says, accurately depicts a major and often obsessive trait of the English late Reformation: a hunger for discipline. The Precisianist Strain clarifies what Puritanism in its disciplinary mode meant for an early modern society struggling with problems of change, order, and identity. Focusing on ascetic teachings and rites, which in their severity fostered the precisianist strain prevalent in Puritan thought and devotional practice, Bozeman traces the reactions of believers put under ever more meticulous demands. Sectarian theologies of ease and consolation soon formed in reaction to those demands, Bozeman argues, eventually giving rise to a first wave of antinomian revolt, including the American conflicts of 1636-1638. Antinomianism, based on the premise of salvation without strictness and duty, was not so much a radicalization of Puritan content as a backlash against the whole project of disciplinary religion. Its reconceptualization of self and responsibility would affect Anglo-American theology for decades to come. Disciplinary themes in the English Reformation Disciplinary themes of the Presbyterian movement Discipline as stabilizer in shifting times Richard Greenham and the first Protestant pietism Piety and self-management after Richard Greenham Introspection and self-control Cases of conscience More piety and more doubt Taking stock : piety's gains and costs John Eaton and the antinomian first wave John Cotton : antinomian adumbrations John Cotton in America : hypocrisy and crisis John Cotton in America : transcendent gifts and operations John Cotton and the American antinomians The construction of American antinomianism "In an examination of transatlantic Puritanism from 1570 to 1638, Theodore Dwight Bozeman analyzes the quest for purity through sanctification. The word "Puritan," he says, accurately depicts a substantive and often obsessive trait of the English late Reformation: a hunger for discipline. The Precisianist Strain clarifies what Puritanism in its disciplinary mode meant for an early modern society struggling with problems of change, order, and identity."--BOOK JACKET