This two-volume set is one of the great treasures of Scottish Christian literature. In quick succession, we meet such justly famous and revered figures as John Welsh, David Dickson, William Guthrie, and James Fraser of Brea, but also the lesser known and long forgotten, like the land-laborer of Carrick, John Stevenson. Here are the stories and reflections of men and women who, in times of great darkness, testing, and suffering, tasted what the author of Hebrews calls 'the powers of the age to come'. The 17th century was a dynamic period in Scottish church history, and yet many of its rich records lay hidden in privately owned manuscripts for two hundred years. It was only with the evangelical awakening of the 1840s that close attention was given to their publication, and a Society, formed for that purpose in Edinburgh, took the name of the historian, Robert Wodrow (1679-1734). On the 26 volumes thus published subsequent authors have depended heavily, and particularly so with respect to the two volumes originally entitled Select Biographies. In an era when Puritan literature is again being rediscovered their reprint is timely, providing as it does the opportunity to go back to first-hand sources. Here, for the most part, men and women live in their own words, or in the witness of their contemporaries. The 19th-century editor, William Tweedie, himself an evangelical leader, thought it worthwhile to be the editor of this rare material, and all who have possessed them endorse his judgment. - Publisher.

'Puritan' was originally a term of contempt, and 'Puritanism' has often been stereotyped by critics and admirers alike. As a distinctive and particularly intense variety of early modern Reformed Protestantism, it was a product of acute tensions within the post-Reformation Church of England. But it was never monolithic or purely oppositional, and its impact reverberated far beyond seventeenth-century England and New England. This Companion broadens our understanding of Puritanism, showing how students and scholars might engage with it from new angles and uncover the surprising diversity that fermented beneath its surface. The book explores issues of gender, literature, politics and popular culture in addition to addressing the Puritans' core concerns such as theology and devotional praxis, and coverage extends to Irish, Welsh, Scottish and European versions of Puritanism as well as to English and American practice. It challenges readers to re-evaluate this crucial tradition within its wider social, cultural, political and religious contexts.

Keith L. Sprunger is Oswald H. Wedel Professor of History Emeritus at Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas. His main scholarly interests are seventeenth-century English and Dutch Puritanism, the history of printing, Mennonite history, oral history, and historic preservation. Publications include The Learned Doctor William Ames (1972), Dutch Puritanism (1982), Trumpets from the Tower (1994), and Bethel College of Kansas 1887-2012 (2012). He enjoys collecting antiquarian books and historical postcards.

Scottish Puritanism, 1590-1638, is a portrait of Protestantism in the two generations leading to the National Covenant of 1638. This book investigates the construction of a puritan community embracing 'godly' ministers along with significant numbers of lay men and women willing to engage in the practice of a piety which confronted the inner person and the external world, seeking the reformation of both. Topics include attitudes towards the Bible and the sacraments, the nature of the Christian life, the place of the feminine in Scottish divinity, and the development of ideas about predestination, covenanting, and the relationship between church and state. The book addresses the tensions inherent in puritanism, such as those associated with the nature of the church and the extent of freedom, and provides a perspective on the relationship between Scottish and English religious developments.

"Shedding critical new light on the diverse forms of Puritan belief and practice in England, Scotland, and New England, Hall provides a multifaceted account of a cultural movement that judged the Protestant reforms of Elizabeth's reign to be unfinished"--Provided by publisher.