Thomas Hooker, Martin Luther, and the Terror at the Edge of Protestant Faith

Unlike their Roman Catholic counterparts, early Protestants insisted that individual Christians could be certain that they personally enjoyed God’s favor and would be saved. Their faith in Christ’s redeeming work would give them “assurance of salvation,” and their ministers insisted that every Christian ought to feel that assurance. This article argues that Protestant assurance did not – and could not – banish believers’ anxiety that God’s saving promises had never been meant for them. “Behind” the God who promised salvation lurked a “hidden God” who had decided the ultimate fate of every individual before the beginning of time. Even the strongest believers – Martin Luther and the first-generation New England minister Thomas Hooker are offered as examples – dreaded the wrath of a terrifying God who might at any moment dash their comfort to pieces

Seeing the World Through Ramist Eyes: The Richardsonian Ramism of Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone

Using as examples the writings of Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone, founding ministers of the First Church of Hartford, Connecticut, this article shows how influential thinkers in early seventeenth-century England and New England saw the world around them through the filters of the Ramist philosophy of Alexander Richardson. It argues that Richardsonian Ramism produced theology and preaching that was less “biblical” and more “Calvinist” than has been conventionally thought

Hartford Puritanism: Thomas Hooker, Samuel Stone, and Their Terrifying God

Statues of Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone grace downtown Hartford, Connecticut, but few residents are aware of the distinctive version of Puritanism that these founding ministers of Hartford\u27s First Church carried into the Connecticut wilderness (or indeed that the city takes its name from Stone\u27s English birthplace). Shaped by interpretations of the writings of Saint Augustine largely developed during the ministers\u27 years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Hartford\u27s church order diverged in significant ways from its counterpart in the churches of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hartford Puritanism argues for a new paradigm of New England Puritanism. Hartford\u27s founding ministers, Baird Tipson shows, both fully embraced - and even harshened - Calvin\u27s double predestination. Tipson explores the contributions of the lesser-known William Perkins, Alexander Richardson, and John Rogers to Thomas Hooker\u27s thought and practice: the art and content of his preaching, as well as his determination to define and impose a distinctive notion of conversion on his hearers. The book draws heavily on Samuel Stone\u27s The Whole Body of Divinity, a comprehensive exposition of his thought and the first systematic theology written in the American colonies. Virtually unknown today, The Whole Body of Divinity not only provides the indispensable intellectual context for the religious development of early Connecticut but also offers a more comprehensive description of the Puritanism of early New England than any other document. [From the Publisher]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1079/thumbnail.jp

Theory of Accounts

It is just ten years ago since the first edition of this book was published. The entire issue was disposed of, and the volume reported out of print. The constant requests for the book from all parts of the world have led the author to get out the present edition; it being likely to supply a somewhat pressing need. The questions and answers have been practically brought up to date; and no candidate who has mastered the contents of this volume need have the slightest doubt of his ability to pass any C. P. A. or Civil Service Examination in this subject. It is just ten years ago since the first edition of this book was published. The entire issue was disposed of, and the volume reported out of print. The constant requests for the book from all parts of the world have led the author to get out the present edition; it being likely to supply a somewhat pressing need. The questions and answers have been practically brought up to date; and no candidate who has mastered the contents of this volume need have the slightest doubt of his ability to pass any C. P. A. or Civil Service Examination in this subject