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Solomon Stoddard (scholar)
Solomon Stoddard (September 27, 1643, baptized October 1, 1643 – February 11, 1729) was the pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He succeeded Rev. Eleazer Mather, and later married his widow around 1670. Stoddard significantly liberalized church policy while promoting more power for the clergy, decrying drinking and extravagance, and urging the preaching of hellfire and the Judgment. The major religious leader of what was then the frontier, he was known as the "Puritan Pope of the Connecticut River valley" and was concerned with the lives (and the souls) of second-generation Puritans. The well-known theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) was his grandson, the son of Solomon's daughter, Esther Stoddard Edwards. Stoddard was the first librarian at Harvard University and the first person in American history known by that title. Religious leader Stoddard was an influential religious leader in colonial New England, and was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congregationalism In The United States
Congregationalism in the United States consists of Protestant churches in the Reformed tradition that have a congregational form of church government and trace their origins mainly to Puritan settlers of colonial New England. Congregational churches in other parts of the world are often related to these in the United States due to American missionary activities. Congregational churches have had an important impact on the religious, political, and cultural history of the United States. Congregational practices concerning church governance influenced the early development of democratic institutions in New England. Many of the nation's oldest educational institutions, such as Harvard University, Bowdoin College and Yale University, were founded to train Congregational clergy. Congregational churches and ministers influenced the First and Second Great Awakenings and were early promoters of the missionary movement of the 19th century. The Congregational tradition has shaped both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleazar Mather
Eleazar (; ) or Elʽazar was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second High Priest, succeeding his father Aaron after he died. He was a nephew of Moses. Biblical narrative Eleazar played a number of roles during the course of the Exodus, from creating the plating for the altar from the firepans of Korah's assembly, to performing the ritual of the red heifer. After the death of his older brothers Nadab and Abihu, he and his younger brother Ithamar were appointed to the charge of the sanctuary. His wife, a daughter of Putiel, bore him Phinehas, who would eventually succeed him as High Priest. Leviticus 10:16–18 records an incident when Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, for failing to eat a sin offering inside the Tabernacle in accordance with the regulations set out in the preceding chapters of Leviticus regarding the entitlement of the priests to a share of the offerings they made on behalf of the Israelite people. As the Israelites moved through the wilderness durin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. The Great Awakening marked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a trans-denominational movement within the Protestant churches. In the United States, the term ''Great Awakening'' is most often used, while in the United Kingdom the movement is referred to as the ''Evangelical Revival''. Building on the foundations of older traditions—Puritanism, Pietism and Presbyterianism—major leaders of the revival such as George Whitefield, John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards articulated a theology of revival and salvation that transcended denominational boundaries and helped forge a common evangelical identity. Revivalists added to the doctrinal imper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half-Way Covenant
The Half-Way Covenant was a form of partial church membership adopted by the Congregational churches of colonial New England in the 1660s. The Puritan-controlled Congregational churches required evidence of a personal conversion experience before granting church membership and the right to have one's children baptized. Conversion experiences were less common among second-generation colonists, and this became an issue when these unconverted adults had children of their own who were ineligible for baptism. The Half-Way Covenant was proposed as a solution to this problem. It allowed baptized but unconverted parents to present their own children for baptism; however, they were denied the other privileges of church membership. The Half-Way Covenant was endorsed by an assembly of ministers in 1657 and a church synod in 1662. Nevertheless, it was highly controversial among Congregationalists with many conservatives being afraid it would lead to lower standards within the church. A num ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gurdon Saltonstall
Gurdon Saltonstall (27 March 1666 – 20 September 1724) was governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1708 to 1724. Born into a distinguished family, Saltonstall became an accomplished and eminent Connecticut pastor. A close associate of Governor Fitz-John Winthrop, Saltonstall was appointed the colony's governor after Winthrop's death in 1707, and then reelected to the office annually until his own death. Early life and pastor Saltonstall was the son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Ward) Saltonstall, a prominent north Massachusetts family active in Massachusetts politics since the 1630s. He received his bachelor's degree in 1684 from Harvard Divinity School, where he studied theology, and was awarded his master's degree in 1687. It was at this time that Saltonstall first preached at First Christ Church in New London where he impressed congregants enough to warrant his appointment as the town's sole pastor. Saltonstall soon grew close to the Connecticut's governor, Fitz-John Winthr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Sewall
Samuel Sewall (; March 28, 1652 – January 1, 1730) was a judge, businessman, and printer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, best known for his involvement in the Salem witch trials, for which he later apologized, and his essay ''The Selling of Joseph'' (1700), which criticized slavery. He served for many years as the chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, the province's high court. Biography Sewall was born in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, England, on March 28, 1652, the son of Henry and Jane ( Dummer) Sewall. His father, son of the mayor of Coventry, had come to the English North American Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, where he married Sewall's mother and returned to England in the 1640s. Following the Restoration of Charles II to the English throne, the Sewalls again crossed the Atlantic in 1661, settling in Newbury, Massachusetts. It is there the young Samuel "Sam" grew up along the Parker River and Plum Island Sound. Like other local boys, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deerfield Massacre
The 1704 Raid on Deerfield (also known as the Deerfield Massacre) occurred during Queen Anne's War on February 29 when French and Native American forces under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville attacked the English frontier settlement at Deerfield, Massachusetts, just before dawn. They burned part of the town and killed 47 villagers. The raiders left with 112 settlers as captives, whom they took overland the nearly 300 miles to Montreal. Some died or were killed along the way because they couldn't keep up. Some 60 persons were later ransomed by family and community. Others were adopted by Mohawk families at Kahnawake and became assimilated into the tribe. In this period, the English and their Indian allies were involved in similar raids against French villages along the northern area between the spheres of influence. Typical of the small-scale frontier conflict in Queen Anne's War, the French-led raid relied on a coalition of French soldiers and a variety of about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Philip's War
King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England colonists and their indigenous allies. The war is named for Metacomet, Metacom, the Wampanoag people, Wampanoag chief who adopted the name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony), ''Mayflower'' Pilgrims. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco (1678), Treaty of Casco Bay on April 12, 1678. Massasoit had maintained a long-standing alliance with the colonists. Metacom (), his younger son, became tribal chief in 1662 after Massasoit's death. Metacom, however, forsook his father's alliance between the Wampanoags and the colonists after repeated violations by the colonists. The colonists insisted that the 1671 peace agree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holy Communion
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper; giving his disciples bread and wine during a Passover meal, he commanded them to "do this in memory of me" while referring to the bread as "my body" and the cup of wine as "the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many". The elements of the Eucharist, sacramental bread (leavened or unleavened) and wine (or non-alcoholic grape juice), are consecrated on an altar or a communion table and consumed thereafter, usually on Sundays. Communicants, those who consume the elements, may speak of "receiving the Eucharist" as well as "celebrating the Eucharist". Christians generally recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Predestination
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby God's omniscience seems incompatible with human free will. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious determinism; and usually predeterminism, also known as theological determinism. History Pre-Christian period Some have argued that the Book of Enoch contains a deterministic worldview that is combined with dualism. The book of Jubilees seems to harmonize or mix together a doctrine of free will and determinism. Ben Sira affirms free will, where God allows a choice of bad or good before the human and thus they can choose which one to follow. New Testament period There is some disagreement among scholars regarding the views on predestination of first-century AD Judaism, out of which Christianity came. J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan clergyman and a prolific writer. Educated at Harvard College, in 1685 he joined his father Increase as minister of the Congregationalist Old North Meeting House of Boston, where he continued to preach for the rest of his life. A major intellectual and public figure in English-speaking colonial America, Cotton Mather helped lead the successful revolt of 1689 against Sir Edmund Andros, the governor imposed on New England by King James II. Mather's subsequent involvement in the Salem witch trials of 1692–1693, which he defended in the book ''Wonders of the Invisible World'' (1693), attracted intense controversy in his own day and has negatively affected his historical reputation. As a historian of colonial New England, Mather is noted for his '' Magnalia Christi Americana'' (1702). Personally and intellectually committed to the waning social and religious orders in New England, Cotton Math ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Redemption (theology)
Redemption is an essential concept in many religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Christianity In Christian theology, Salvation#Redemption, redemption (Greek: ''apolutrosis'') refers to the deliverance of Christians from Christian views on sin, sin. It assumes an important position in Salvation in Christianity, salvation because the transgressions in question form part of a great system against which human power is helpless. Leon Morris says that "Paul the Apostle, Paul uses the concept of redemption primarily to speak of the saving significance of the Crucifixion of Jesus, death of Christ." In the New Testament, "redemption" and related words are used to refer both to deliverance from sin and to freedom from captivity.Demarest, ''The Cross and Salvation'', 177. In Christian theology, redemption is a metaphor for what is achieved through the Atonement in Christianity, Atonement; therefore, there is a metaphorical sense in which the death of Jesus pays the price of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
