Godly letters : the literature of the American Puritans / Michael J. Colacurcio.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Colacurcio, Michael J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Puritan authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775--History and criticism.

American literature--New England--History and criticism.

American literature--Puritan authors.

New England.

Christian literature, American--History and criticism.

Christian literature, American.

Puritans--New England--Intellectual life.

Puritans.

Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

xix, 650 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, [2006]

Summary:

In Godly Letters, Michael J. Colacurcio analyzes a treasury of works written by the first generation of seventeenth-century American Puritans. Arguing that insufficient scrutiny has been given this important oeuvre, he calls for a reevaluation of the imaginative and creative qualities of America's early literature of inspired ecclesiological experiment, one that focuses on the quality of the works as well as the demanding theology they express. Colacurcio gives a detailed, richly contextualized account of the meaning of these "godly letters" in rhetorical, theological, and political terms. From his close readings of the major texts by the first generation of Puritans--including William Bradford, Thomas Hooker, Edward Johnson, John Winthrop, Thomas Shepard, and John Cotton--he expertly illuminates qualities other studies have often overlooked. In his words, close study of the literature yields work "comprehensive, circumspect, determined subtle, energetic, relentlessly intellectual, playful in spite of their cultural prohibitions, in spite of themselves, even, they are in every way remarkable products of a culture that . . . assigned an extraordinarily high place to the life of words." Magisterial in sweep, Godly Letters is likely to stand as the definitive work on the Puritan literary achievement.

Contents:

A costly Canaan : Morton and the margins of American literature

Advancing the gospel, dividing the church : design and vision in Bradford's Plymouth

"A strange poise of spirit" : the life and deaths of Thomas Shepard

The charter and the "model" : writing Winthrop's holy state

Doubt's venture, faith's call : Shepard's activist Calvinism

Regeneration through violence : Hooker and the morale of preparation

Primitive comfort : the spiritual witness of John Cotton

Wives and lovers : reaction and the gender of Puritanism

Marching orders : Johnson's summary syntax

Government in exile : Williams and the decay of dialogue

Epilogue: "God's altar" : the fall to poetry.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 576-633) and index.

ISBN:

0268022909

OCLC:

68132919

Publisher Number:

9780268022907