Nothing is more eloquent than how Puritanism had, by the mid-17th century, had to re-formulate itself after the "Halfway Covenant." Puritanism's ongoing evolution had to contend with what was clearly competition from other Christian disciplines -- Catholics in Maryland, Quakers (hanged by the Puritans) in Pennsylvania, and the cataclysmi…
Nothing is more eloquent than how Puritanism had, by the mid-17th century, had to re-formulate itself after the "Halfway Covenant." Puritanism's ongoing evolution had to contend with what was clearly competition from other Christian disciplines -- Catholics in Maryland, Quakers (hanged by the Puritans) in Pennsylvania, and the cataclysmic enthusiasm of the Great Awakening. You will note that most of Massachusett's former Puritan enclaves are now Unitarian/Universalist! But even by then (1720s), the aging Puritan culture was starting to weaken in its strict Calvinism -- I would recommend the book "The Heart Prepared: Grace and Conversion in Puritan Spiritual Life" by Pettit that describes how Puritans backtracked the closed system of total depravity to make conversion possible. "Covenant theology" now belongs to Presbyterians and strict Reformed Churches.
Nothing is more eloquent than how Puritanism had, by the mid-17th century, had to re-formulate itself after the "Halfway Covenant." Puritanism's ongoing evolution had to contend with what was clearly competition from other Christian disciplines -- Catholics in Maryland, Quakers (hanged by the Puritans) in Pennsylvania, and the cataclysmic enthusiasm of the Great Awakening. You will note that most of Massachusett's former Puritan enclaves are now Unitarian/Universalist! But even by then (1720s), the aging Puritan culture was starting to weaken in its strict Calvinism -- I would recommend the book "The Heart Prepared: Grace and Conversion in Puritan Spiritual Life" by Pettit that describes how Puritans backtracked the closed system of total depravity to make conversion possible. "Covenant theology" now belongs to Presbyterians and strict Reformed Churches.