The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Puritans in their theology

PURITAN, PURITANISM. The nickname Puritan was coined about 1564 to denote members of the Church of England who desired a more radical reformation of its worship and order than was prescribed by the Act of Uniformity (1559). These Puritans attacked allegedly superstitious ceremonies and diocesan organization, and campaigned for parity of ministers, parochial discipline, better preaching and more energetic recruitment for the ministry. Elizabethan Puritans were not separatists, nor were Elizabethan separatists called Puritans. In the seventeenth century, however, the name was used loosely and comprehensively for all, episcopalian, presbyterian or independent, who held a Calvinistic creed and practiced serious piety. Puritanism in this broader sense developed a rich, if austere, culture and a noble tradition of moral and pastoral theology, which inspired eighteenth-century Evangelicalism in both Britain and New England. Puritan theology was characteristically Reformed and of a federal cast (witness the Westminster Confession). Two distinctive features were its elaborate treatment of the work of the Holy Spirit and its conception of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Notable Puritan theologians were J. Owen, R. Baxter, T. Goodwin, J. Howe, R. Sibbes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
M.M. Knappen, Tudor Puritanism; W. Hailer, The Rise of Puritanism; H. Martin, Puritanism and Richard Baxter. - JAMES I. PACKER