Orthodoxy in Massachusetts, 1630–1650

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As an introduction to the intellectual history of America and a contribution to the study of Puritanism in the larger sense, this book will interest all students of American philosophy, theology, literature, and history. It is the first systematic description of the New England mind from its inception to its achievement of unity and formulation in 1648. Its main idea is that the thought of the age furnishes the keystone of the whole colonial structure, that other elements in the life of the community, however important, were in the minds of the participants subsidiary to their creed and their religious program. Consequently it describes this creed and program in terms as much contemporary as possible and presents the issues as they were apprehended at the moment. At the same time it interprets these issues in larger terms, so that the full philosophical implications of colonial thought may be perceived by the modern reader.