Visible Saints: The History of a Puritan Idea

I found this book very helpful in understanding early Puritanism in America. I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to study that era of American religious history. The two very helpful things about it which immediately come to my mind, though I read it some years back, are its discussions of the desire of American Puritans (1) to have "pure" churches whose members were all dedicated to their faith and (2) to make the profession of a saving grace experience a requirement for membership in many of their churches. As Morgan indicates, they did not bring that profession requirement with them from England. Rather, it developed in the Bay Colony then was taken up by a number of Puritan churches in Plymouth Colony. This book is relatively show more small physically, but it makes a very important contribution to this area of New England religious history. show less

A very useful introduction to Puritan ideas and practices. First, Morgan argues that the Puritan church in New England was not a follower of the Puritan movement in England, but a leader in its development. This was especially the case when it came to communion practices and the confession of faith required for church membership. Morgan also describes different strains within the Puritan movement in New England, and their key proponents. Finally, he shows the Puritans' inability to maintain their membership because of internal contradictions between theology and practice. As a result, by the end of the 17th century, the religiously moribund communities of colonial New England were ripe for the Great Awakening.

Still going at 86, Professor Morgan has just written a best selling biography of Benjamin Franklin. Pekarek provides a chapter by chapter analysis of Visible Saints. Published in the same year as Perry Miller died, the book is dedicated to him. In it Morgan deals with the history of the half way covenant, or the doctrine that church membership could be open to the faithful who had not yet made a public declaration of faith.