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Sympathetic Puritans: Calvinist Fellow Feeling in Early New England (Religion in America)

by Abram Van Engen
Hardcover |English |0199379637 | 9780199379637

Sympathetic Puritans: Calvinist Fellow Feeling in Early New England (Religion in America)

by Abram Van Engen
Hardcover |English |0199379637 | 9780199379637
Overview
Revising dominant accounts of Puritanism and challenging the literary history of sentimentalism, Sympathetic Puritans argues that a Calvinist theology of sympathy shaped the politics, religion, rhetoric, and literature of early New England. Scholars have often understood and presented sentimentalism as a direct challenge to stern and stoic Puritan forebears; the standard history traces a cult of sensibility back to moral sense philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment, not Puritan New England. Abram C. Van Engen has unearthed pervasive evidence of sympathy in a large archive of Puritan sermons, treatises, tracts, poems, journals, histories, and captivity narratives. He demonstrates how two types of sympathy -- the active command to fellow-feel (a duty), as well as the passive sign that could indicate salvation (a discovery) -- permeated Puritan society and came to define the very boundaries of English culture, affecting conceptions of community, relations with Native Americans, and the development of American literature. Van Engen re-examines the Antinomian Controversy, conversion narratives, transatlantic relations, Puritan missions, Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative -- and Puritan culture more generally -- through the lens of sympathy. Demonstrating and explicating a Calvinist theology of sympathy in seventeenth-century New England, the book reveals the religious history of a concept that has previously been associated with more secular roots.
ISBN: 0199379637
ISBN13: 9780199379637
Author: Abram Van Engen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Format: Hardcover
PublicationDate: 2015-02-25
Language: English
Edition: 1
PageCount: 328
Dimensions: 9.3 x 1.2 x 6.4 inches
Weight: 20.0 ounces
Revising dominant accounts of Puritanism and challenging the literary history of sentimentalism, Sympathetic Puritans argues that a Calvinist theology of sympathy shaped the politics, religion, rhetoric, and literature of early New England. Scholars have often understood and presented sentimentalism as a direct challenge to stern and stoic Puritan forebears; the standard history traces a cult of sensibility back to moral sense philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment, not Puritan New England. Abram C. Van Engen has unearthed pervasive evidence of sympathy in a large archive of Puritan sermons, treatises, tracts, poems, journals, histories, and captivity narratives. He demonstrates how two types of sympathy -- the active command to fellow-feel (a duty), as well as the passive sign that could indicate salvation (a discovery) -- permeated Puritan society and came to define the very boundaries of English culture, affecting conceptions of community, relations with Native Americans, and the development of American literature. Van Engen re-examines the Antinomian Controversy, conversion narratives, transatlantic relations, Puritan missions, Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative -- and Puritan culture more generally -- through the lens of sympathy. Demonstrating and explicating a Calvinist theology of sympathy in seventeenth-century New England, the book reveals the religious history of a concept that has previously been associated with more secular roots.
Editorial Reviews



Van Engen's gracefully written study, both original and informed, is a pleasure and a provocation. His reframing of some of early America's most studied moments requires that readers press a kind of reset button on familiar, even iconic, texts and moments. Puritan sympathy invites a reconsideration

of the essential meaning and influence of Puritan sensibility- not on 'America' or the 'American self, ' but on reader and genre, particularly as a precursor to the novel.-- Eileen Razzari Elrod,
American Literary History


[I]ts graceful and accessible style would make it an ideal supplementary text for an undergraduate course in colonial American literature.--Baird Tipson,
The Historian



Sympathetic Puritans adds a much-needed interpretation of Puritan social sentiment to the existing early New England Studies corpus. Van Engen's analysis is a thoroughgoing unmasking of seventeenth century Puritan sympathy that provides a more nuanced understanding of ecclesial and civil

communalism in the New England colonies. There is much to commend in this work, but its chief accomplishment appears to be Van Engen's revelation that the New England Puritans inherited a Calvinistic theology that logically posited sympathy and 'fellow feeling' among co-inheritors of divine

election. Henceforward any characterization of the Puritans as legalistic authoritarians must contend with Van Engen's substantive discoveries.--
Reading Religion


Van Engen s telling of New England s early history contrasts substantially from others written over the past decade...Sympathetic Puritans represents a largely successful effort to portray the Puritans as they understood themselves and their enterprise. Van Engen s scholarship is sound, thoroughly

researched, and marked by a sensitive, sympathetic analysis of abundant evidence testifying to the centrality of this facet of Puritan experience.--
Journal of American History


Abram Van Engen offers a fresh perspective on early New England s religious culture--no small achievement given the prodigious amount of scholarship on the subject....A cogently argued and remarkably well-written book.--
New England Quarterly Review


Focusing on the importance of the affection that bound Puritans together, Abram Van Engen illuminates an important and yet neglected aspect of the society that speaks primarily not to formal ideas but to how Puritanism was lived in the families, churches, and towns of colonial New England.

--Francis J. Bremer, author of
Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, a Puritan in Three Worlds




Van Engen focuses on fellow feeling as both a defining feature of seventeenth-century Puritanism and a precursor to forms of sympathy better known in later literature. In so doing, he offers a challenging interpretation of the motivations of New England colonists.
Sympathetic Puritans does not

ask us to empathize with the likes of John Winthrop or Mary Rowlandson, but it does demand that we consider them and our enduring connections to them in a new light.

--Kristina Bross, Associate Professor of English and American Studies, Purdue University




An immensely rewarding book that alters our understanding of a canonical text and fills out the intellectual history of early New England.

--David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School




Van Engen's book, based on his dissertation at Northwestern University, will be an important work for students of colonial New England, Puritanism, and the history of the emotions... Van Engen's is the more original work, and probably will be of interest to a wider range of scholars. It proves that

there is still something original to be said about Puritanism. --
Reviews in History




In graceful writing that rehearses predecessors while advancing knowledge,
Sympathetic Puritans will prompt readers to look anew at the book's historical actors and time period, stimulate debates for other areas of American Studies, and facilitate discussions that will energize students at all

levels.--
The American Historical Review





Sympathetic Puritans is a refreshingly ambitious book... Van Engen's work is groundbreaking, a must-read for scholars of New England Puritanism and sentimental novels alike. --
Common-Place




This is an excellent, detailed, and careful cross-disciplinary study that questions and thus challenges inherited assumptions and thus the method of actually investigating 'theological' and 'social' ideas. The volume is recommended for close reading by all. --
Religious Studies Review


Abram van Engen s
Sympathetic Puritans, then, is a major contribution to the ongoing

revisionist scholarship engaged in putting Puritans and their contributions to American

culture back onto an even keel. In drawing our attention to the 'genealogical links' between the power of emotions in Puritan soteriology and their latter-day descendants in sentimental fiction, van Engen points us in the right direction...In this and in many other aspects, van

Engen s first book establishes him as a promising new light in the discipline.--
American Studies


[W]ell-conceived, engagingly written comprises a convincing re-casting of seventeenth-century New England history, and it should make a lasting contribution to the scholarship of that period.--
Britain and the World






Abram C. Van Engen is an Assistant Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where he researches and teaches early American literature, history, and culture. Van Engen received his Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University in 2010, earning the Hagstrum Prize for best

dissertation in English.

is an Assistant Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where he researches and teaches early American literature, history, and culture. Van Engen received his Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University in 2010, earning the Hagstrum Prize for best

dissertation in English.

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  • Used - Acceptable: All pages and the cover are intact, but shrink wrap, dust covers, or boxed set case may be missing. Pages may include limited notes, highlighting, or minor water damage but the text is readable. Item may but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, but the text cannot be obscured or unreadable.

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To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging.

Several types of goods are exempt from being returned. Perishable goods such as food, flowers, newspapers or magazines cannot be returned. We also do not accept products that are intimate or sanitary goods, hazardous materials, or flammable liquids or gases.

Additional non-returnable items:

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  • Downloadable software products
  • Some health and personal care items

To complete your return, we require a tracking number, which shows the items which you already returned to us.
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If you are shipping an item over $75, you should consider using a trackable shipping service or purchasing shipping insurance. We don’t guarantee that we will receive your returned item.

$116.72
Out of Stock
Overview
Revising dominant accounts of Puritanism and challenging the literary history of sentimentalism, Sympathetic Puritans argues that a Calvinist theology of sympathy shaped the politics, religion, rhetoric, and literature of early New England. Scholars have often understood and presented sentimentalism as a direct challenge to stern and stoic Puritan forebears; the standard history traces a cult of sensibility back to moral sense philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment, not Puritan New England. Abram C. Van Engen has unearthed pervasive evidence of sympathy in a large archive of Puritan sermons, treatises, tracts, poems, journals, histories, and captivity narratives. He demonstrates how two types of sympathy -- the active command to fellow-feel (a duty), as well as the passive sign that could indicate salvation (a discovery) -- permeated Puritan society and came to define the very boundaries of English culture, affecting conceptions of community, relations with Native Americans, and the development of American literature. Van Engen re-examines the Antinomian Controversy, conversion narratives, transatlantic relations, Puritan missions, Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative -- and Puritan culture more generally -- through the lens of sympathy. Demonstrating and explicating a Calvinist theology of sympathy in seventeenth-century New England, the book reveals the religious history of a concept that has previously been associated with more secular roots.
ISBN: 0199379637
ISBN13: 9780199379637
Author: Abram Van Engen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Format: Hardcover
PublicationDate: 2015-02-25
Language: English
Edition: 1
PageCount: 328
Dimensions: 9.3 x 1.2 x 6.4 inches
Weight: 20.0 ounces
Revising dominant accounts of Puritanism and challenging the literary history of sentimentalism, Sympathetic Puritans argues that a Calvinist theology of sympathy shaped the politics, religion, rhetoric, and literature of early New England. Scholars have often understood and presented sentimentalism as a direct challenge to stern and stoic Puritan forebears; the standard history traces a cult of sensibility back to moral sense philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment, not Puritan New England. Abram C. Van Engen has unearthed pervasive evidence of sympathy in a large archive of Puritan sermons, treatises, tracts, poems, journals, histories, and captivity narratives. He demonstrates how two types of sympathy -- the active command to fellow-feel (a duty), as well as the passive sign that could indicate salvation (a discovery) -- permeated Puritan society and came to define the very boundaries of English culture, affecting conceptions of community, relations with Native Americans, and the development of American literature. Van Engen re-examines the Antinomian Controversy, conversion narratives, transatlantic relations, Puritan missions, Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative -- and Puritan culture more generally -- through the lens of sympathy. Demonstrating and explicating a Calvinist theology of sympathy in seventeenth-century New England, the book reveals the religious history of a concept that has previously been associated with more secular roots.
Editorial Reviews



Van Engen's gracefully written study, both original and informed, is a pleasure and a provocation. His reframing of some of early America's most studied moments requires that readers press a kind of reset button on familiar, even iconic, texts and moments. Puritan sympathy invites a reconsideration

of the essential meaning and influence of Puritan sensibility- not on 'America' or the 'American self, ' but on reader and genre, particularly as a precursor to the novel.-- Eileen Razzari Elrod,
American Literary History


[I]ts graceful and accessible style would make it an ideal supplementary text for an undergraduate course in colonial American literature.--Baird Tipson,
The Historian



Sympathetic Puritans adds a much-needed interpretation of Puritan social sentiment to the existing early New England Studies corpus. Van Engen's analysis is a thoroughgoing unmasking of seventeenth century Puritan sympathy that provides a more nuanced understanding of ecclesial and civil

communalism in the New England colonies. There is much to commend in this work, but its chief accomplishment appears to be Van Engen's revelation that the New England Puritans inherited a Calvinistic theology that logically posited sympathy and 'fellow feeling' among co-inheritors of divine

election. Henceforward any characterization of the Puritans as legalistic authoritarians must contend with Van Engen's substantive discoveries.--
Reading Religion


Van Engen s telling of New England s early history contrasts substantially from others written over the past decade...Sympathetic Puritans represents a largely successful effort to portray the Puritans as they understood themselves and their enterprise. Van Engen s scholarship is sound, thoroughly

researched, and marked by a sensitive, sympathetic analysis of abundant evidence testifying to the centrality of this facet of Puritan experience.--
Journal of American History


Abram Van Engen offers a fresh perspective on early New England s religious culture--no small achievement given the prodigious amount of scholarship on the subject....A cogently argued and remarkably well-written book.--
New England Quarterly Review


Focusing on the importance of the affection that bound Puritans together, Abram Van Engen illuminates an important and yet neglected aspect of the society that speaks primarily not to formal ideas but to how Puritanism was lived in the families, churches, and towns of colonial New England.

--Francis J. Bremer, author of
Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, a Puritan in Three Worlds




Van Engen focuses on fellow feeling as both a defining feature of seventeenth-century Puritanism and a precursor to forms of sympathy better known in later literature. In so doing, he offers a challenging interpretation of the motivations of New England colonists.
Sympathetic Puritans does not

ask us to empathize with the likes of John Winthrop or Mary Rowlandson, but it does demand that we consider them and our enduring connections to them in a new light.

--Kristina Bross, Associate Professor of English and American Studies, Purdue University




An immensely rewarding book that alters our understanding of a canonical text and fills out the intellectual history of early New England.

--David D. Hall, Harvard Divinity School




Van Engen's book, based on his dissertation at Northwestern University, will be an important work for students of colonial New England, Puritanism, and the history of the emotions... Van Engen's is the more original work, and probably will be of interest to a wider range of scholars. It proves that

there is still something original to be said about Puritanism. --
Reviews in History




In graceful writing that rehearses predecessors while advancing knowledge,
Sympathetic Puritans will prompt readers to look anew at the book's historical actors and time period, stimulate debates for other areas of American Studies, and facilitate discussions that will energize students at all

levels.--
The American Historical Review





Sympathetic Puritans is a refreshingly ambitious book... Van Engen's work is groundbreaking, a must-read for scholars of New England Puritanism and sentimental novels alike. --
Common-Place




This is an excellent, detailed, and careful cross-disciplinary study that questions and thus challenges inherited assumptions and thus the method of actually investigating 'theological' and 'social' ideas. The volume is recommended for close reading by all. --
Religious Studies Review


Abram van Engen s
Sympathetic Puritans, then, is a major contribution to the ongoing

revisionist scholarship engaged in putting Puritans and their contributions to American

culture back onto an even keel. In drawing our attention to the 'genealogical links' between the power of emotions in Puritan soteriology and their latter-day descendants in sentimental fiction, van Engen points us in the right direction...In this and in many other aspects, van

Engen s first book establishes him as a promising new light in the discipline.--
American Studies


[W]ell-conceived, engagingly written comprises a convincing re-casting of seventeenth-century New England history, and it should make a lasting contribution to the scholarship of that period.--
Britain and the World






Abram C. Van Engen is an Assistant Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where he researches and teaches early American literature, history, and culture. Van Engen received his Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University in 2010, earning the Hagstrum Prize for best

dissertation in English.

is an Assistant Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where he researches and teaches early American literature, history, and culture. Van Engen received his Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University in 2010, earning the Hagstrum Prize for best

dissertation in English.

Books - New and Used

The following guidelines apply to books:

  • New: A brand-new copy with cover and original protective wrapping intact. Books with markings of any kind on the cover or pages, books marked as "Bargain" or "Remainder," or with any other labels attached, may not be listed as New condition.
  • Used - Good: All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May include "From the library of" labels. Shrink wrap, dust covers, or boxed set case may be missing. Item may be missing bundled media.
  • Used - Acceptable: All pages and the cover are intact, but shrink wrap, dust covers, or boxed set case may be missing. Pages may include limited notes, highlighting, or minor water damage but the text is readable. Item may but the dust cover may be missing. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, but the text cannot be obscured or unreadable.

Note: Some electronic material access codes are valid only for one user. For this reason, used books, including books listed in the Used – Like New condition, may not come with functional electronic material access codes.

Shipping Fees

  • Stevens Books offers FREE SHIPPING everywhere in the United States for ALL non-book orders, and $3.99 for each book.
  • Packages are shipped from Monday to Friday.
  • No additional fees and charges.

Delivery Times

The usual time for processing an order is 24 hours (1 business day), but may vary depending on the availability of products ordered. This period excludes delivery times, which depend on your geographic location.

Estimated delivery times:

  • Standard Shipping: 5-8 business days
  • Expedited Shipping: 3-5 business days

Shipping method varies depending on what is being shipped.  

Tracking
All orders are shipped with a tracking number. Once your order has left our warehouse, a confirmation e-mail with a tracking number will be sent to you. You will be able to track your package at all times. 

Damaged Parcel
If your package has been delivered in a PO Box, please note that we are not responsible for any damage that may result (consequences of extreme temperatures, theft, etc.). 

If you have any questions regarding shipping or want to know about the status of an order, please contact us or email to support@stevensbooks.com.

You may return most items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund.

To be eligible for a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. It must also be in the original packaging.

Several types of goods are exempt from being returned. Perishable goods such as food, flowers, newspapers or magazines cannot be returned. We also do not accept products that are intimate or sanitary goods, hazardous materials, or flammable liquids or gases.

Additional non-returnable items:

  • Gift cards
  • Downloadable software products
  • Some health and personal care items

To complete your return, we require a tracking number, which shows the items which you already returned to us.
There are certain situations where only partial refunds are granted (if applicable)

  • Book with obvious signs of use
  • CD, DVD, VHS tape, software, video game, cassette tape, or vinyl record that has been opened
  • Any item not in its original condition, is damaged or missing parts for reasons not due to our error
  • Any item that is returned more than 30 days after delivery

Items returned to us as a result of our error will receive a full refund,some returns may be subject to a restocking fee of 7% of the total item price, please contact a customer care team member to see if your return is subject. Returns that arrived on time and were as described are subject to a restocking fee.

Items returned to us that were not the result of our error, including items returned to us due to an invalid or incomplete address, will be refunded the original item price less our standard restocking fees.

If the item is returned to us for any of the following reasons, a 15% restocking fee will be applied to your refund total and you will be asked to pay for return shipping:

  • Item(s) no longer needed or wanted.
  • Item(s) returned to us due to an invalid or incomplete address.
  • Item(s) returned to us that were not a result of our error.

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, please Contact Us with your order number and details about the product you would like to return. We will respond quickly with instructions for how to return items from your order.


Shipping Cost


We'll pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.). In other cases, you will be responsible for paying for your own shipping costs for returning your item. Shipping costs are non-refundable. If you receive a refund, the cost of return shipping will be deducted from your refund.

Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you, may vary.

If you are shipping an item over $75, you should consider using a trackable shipping service or purchasing shipping insurance. We don’t guarantee that we will receive your returned item.

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