Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: David D. Rail
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Social history
- Time of Work: The seventeenth century
- Setting: New England
- Principal Characters: William Bradford, John Cotton, Cotton Mather, Increase Mather, Anne Hutchison, Samuel Sewall, John Winthrop
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, Colonialism, Religion, New England, Seventeenth century, Witches or witchcraft, Bible, biblical imagery, or biblical symbolism, Puritans or Puritanism, Literacy
- Locales: New England
David D. Hall’s Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Relief in Early New England is a multilayered and subtle portrayal of popular religion in seventeenth century New England. Drawing on letters, diaries, books, and church and town records, Hall leads his reader through a fascinating tour of an ambiguous cosmos in which competing claims are thrust and held together by the necessities of spiritual and material survival. Mostly, the book concerns what theologians call “theodicy,” only this book is not about theologians. Rather, Hall describes how the...
[The entire page is 2074 words long]
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