'They Know Puritans', Post 1: Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe

Dr. Hambrick-Stowe currently serves as Vice President of Academic Affairs, Professor of Christian History and Dean of Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. He is married to Elizabeth and has two grown children. After seminary (M.A., Graduate Theological Union), he and Elizabeth spent two years in Japan doing missionary work. Dr. Hambrick-Stowe received an M.Div. from the Pacific School of Religion and a Ph.D. from Boston University in American Studies. He has written seven books and numerous articles on church history, Christian faith, and the American religious experience.

Of interest to Puritanophiles will be his 1986 work, The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth Century New England, and for those with more literary interests, Early New England Meditative Poetry: Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor (1989). Recently he contributed a chapter to Kapic and Gleason's outstanding collection, The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics, on John Cotton's Christ the Fountaine of Life (1651).

The Practice of Piety, named after the devotional classic by Puritan Lewis Bayly, is the pre-eminent introduction to New English Puritan spirituality, which of course means readers will learn a lot about English Puritans as well. Hambrick-Stowe's sympathetic treatment of early American piety includes some great illustrations and emblems (I've already posted one of these), and its especially moving final chapter describes the rapturous, semi-mystical encounters with the Almighty some New England Puritans experienced in the latter years of their earthly pilgrimage. I highly recommend The Practice of Piety to anyone seeking a more positive portrayal the oft-maligned New England Puritans. Thank you, Dr. Hambrick-Stowe.