The Science of the Soul in Colonial New England
Sarah Rivett
Abstract
This book demonstrates how from the 1630s to the 1740s natural philosophy and empiricism combined with Puritanism to transform the scope of religious activity in colonial New England. Puritan ministers listened to, witnessed, and recorded thousands of testimonials of spiritual experiences of individuals ranging from last words of dying believers, young girls involved in the Salem witchcraft trials, to converted Native American Indians. The book terms this attempt to somehow capture spiritual grace and evidence of the presence of soul as “tokenography”. It also states that science and religion ... More
Keywords: empiricism, presence of soul, Puritanism, natural philosophy, Jonathan Edwards, Bacon, Native American Indians, spiritual grace
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 | Print ISBN-13: 9780807835241 |
| Published to North Carolina Scholarship Online: July 2014 | DOI:10.5149/9780807838709_Rivett |
