John Eliot’s Puritan Ministry to New England “Indians”
- History & Biography
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2021
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Publisher's Description
John Eliot (1604-90) has been called "the apostle to the Indians." This book looks at Eliot not from the perspective of modern Protestant "mission" studies (the approach mainly adopted by previous research) but in the historical and theological context of seventeenth-century puritanism. Drawing on recent research on migration to New England, the book argues that Eliot, like many other migrants, went to New England primarily in search of a safe haven to practice pure reformed Christianity, not to convert Indians. Eliot's Indian ministry started from a fundamental concern for the conversion of the unconverted, which he derived from his experience of the puritan movement in England. Consequently, for Eliot, the notion of New England Indian "mission" was essentially conversion-oriented, Word-centered, and pastorally focused, and (in common with the broader aims of New England churches) pursued a pure reformed Christianity. Eliot hoped to achieve this through the establishment of Praying Towns organized on a biblical model--where preaching, pastoral care, and the practice of piety could lead to conversion--leading to the formation of Indian churches composed of "sincere converts."
Endorsements (3)
“This fine and illuminating study of John Eliot’s ministry among the Algonquian people in the Massachusetts ‘praying towns’ challenges traditional images of what it meant to be a seventeenth-century puritan in New England. It also makes an important contribution to the general debate about modern concepts of ‘mission’ and ‘conversion’ to Christianity.”
“For several centuries, historians have described the ways in which the puritans who established settlements in the New England colonies shaped the formation of what became the United States. Focusing on John Eliot and his missionary efforts, Kim’s exciting new book makes a different case—that the American experience profoundly shaped what it meant to be a puritan.”
“Seventeenth-century puritan divine John Eliot, known as the ‘apostle to the Indians,’ is most famous for establishing a network of ‘praying towns’ for native converts in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Traditionally viewed as a ‘missionary,’ Kim argues that applying categories of modern Christian missions to a figure such as Eliot—and particularly Eliot—is misleading. In this revisionist study, Kim argues that it is more historically sensitive and illuminating to understand Eliot as a minister employing Reformed understandings of pastoral theology in a unique context.”
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