Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England PDF
Preview Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England
WORLDS OF WONDER, DAYS OF JUDGMENT WORLDS OF WONDER, DAYS OF JUDGMENT POPULAR RELIGIOUS BELIEF IN EARLY NEW ENGLAND David D. Hall HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS Copyright © 1989 David D. Hall All rights reserved Printed in the United Sutes of America This book has been digitally reprinted. The content remains identical to that of previous printings. First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 1990 This edition is published by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Chapter 2 is a revised and expanded version of “A World of Wonders," which was originally published in ScvrvUmttk Cm- hay New England, Vol. 63 (1982), edited by David D. Hall and David Grayson Allen. Reprinted by permission of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Chapter 5 is a revised and expanded version of "The Mental World of Samuel Sewall" by David D. Hall, which was originally published in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 92 (1981). Reprinted by permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Dau Hall, David D. Worlds of wonder, days of judgment : popular religious belief in early New England / David D. Hall. —ist Harvard University Press paperback ed. p. cm. Reprint. Originally published: New York : Knopf, 1989. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0*674*96216-8 1. New England—Religious life and customs. 2. New England—Church history—17th century. 1. Title. [BK530.H35 1990! »774'07—dc»o 90-33415 cw For JOHN, JEFFREY, and HUGH Now so bad we are that the world is stripped of love and of terror. Here came the other night an Aurora [Borealis] so wonderful, a curtain of red and blue and silver glory, that in any other age or nation it would have moved the awe and wonder of men and mingled with the profoundest sen timents of religion and love, and we all saw it with cold, arithmetical eyes, we knew how many colors shone, how many degrees it extended, how many hours it lasted, and of this heavenly flower we beheld nothing more: a primrose by the brim of the river of time. Shall we not wish back again the Seven Whistlers, the Flying Dutchman, the lucky and unlucky days, and the ter rors of the Day of Doom? —Emerson in his journal, September 14, 1839 CONTENTS Introduction 3 1 The Uses of Literacy 21 2 A World of Wonders 71 3 The Meetinghouse 117 4 The Uses of Ritual 166 5 The Mental World of Samuel Sewall 213 Afterword 239 A Note on Book Ownership in Seventeenth-Century New England 247 Acknowledgments 251 Notes 255 Index 301
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