Overview
""Opening Scripture provides a thorough and original account of ministerial and lay strategies for interpreting Scripture in the Massachusetts Bay. Demonstrating an impressive command of the vast literature and history of the period, Lisa Gordis moves deftly through discussions of major figures and events. This is a significant intervention in the study of Puritan New England.""—Sandra M. Gustafson, University of Notre Dame What role did the Bible really play in Puritan New England? Many have treated it as a blunt instrument used to cudgel dissenters into submission, but Lisa M. Gordis reveals instead that Puritan readings of the Bible showed great complexity and literary sophistication—so much complexity, in fact, that controversies over biblical interpretation threatened to tear Puritan society apart. Drawing on Puritan preaching manuals and sermons as well as the texts of early religious controversies, Gordis argues that Puritan ministers did not expect to impose their views on their congregations. Instead they believed that interpretive consensus would emerge from the process of reading the Bible, with the Holy Spirit assisting readers to understand God's will. Treating the conflict over Roger Williams, the Antinomian Controversy, and the reluctant compromises of the Halfway Covenant as symptoms of a crisis that was as much literary as it was social or spiritual, Opening Scripture explores the profound consequences of Puritan negotiations over biblical interpretation for New England's literature and history.
Full Product Details
Author: Lisa M. Gordis
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Dimensions:
Width: 1.60cm
, Height: 0.20cm
, Length: 2.30cm
Weight: 0.624kg
ISBN: 9780226304120
ISBN 10: 0226304124
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 15 January 2003
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
A thorough and original account of ministerial and lay strategies for interpreting Scripture in the Massachusetts Bay. Demonstrating an impressive command of the vast literature and history of the period, Gordis moves deftly through discussions of major figures and events. This is a significant intervention in the study of Puritan New England. - Sandra M. Gustafson, author of Eloquence Is Power: Oratory and Performance in Early America
"""A thorough and original account of ministerial and lay strategies for interpreting Scripture in the Massachusetts Bay. Demonstrating an impressive command of the vast literature and history of the period, Gordis moves deftly through discussions of major figures and events. This is a significant intervention in the study of Puritan New England."" - Sandra M. Gustafson, author of Eloquence Is Power: Oratory and Performance in Early America"
Author Information
Lisa M. Gordis is assistant professor of English at Barnard College.
