Editor's Note: This is a new series started with the aim of reviewing older works that are either directly linked with prelim reading lists or dissertation research. Of course, we invite any reader to contribute content about works valuable to their own research, regardless of period or topic.
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| Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement: Popular Religious Beliefs in Early New England (1989) |
In Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment,
David D. Hall has reexamined the spiritual community of colonial New England,
arguing for the existence of a popular religion that is both rooted in and
supported by culture. Hall’s approach is novel, arguing that religion acted as
“a mode of literacy” (18), and this prevailing connection between faith and
literacy dominates this seminal work.
For
Hall, the faith that emerges in New England cannot be simply explained as a
product of cultural transmission. A variety of reasons are noted for colonial
distinctiveness: the utility and persistence of folk belief, the spatial
relationship between minister and congregation, the separate nature of church
and state, the relative lack of appeal for ‘radical’ (i.e. Quaker, Baptist)
faiths, the accommodative nature of magic and religion (paying homage to Keith
Thomas’ 1971 seminal work), and the prominence of literacy. Popular culture
represents something unique, facilitating an environment that was at once
strictly demarcated, but flexible enough to include “countervailing practices
and motifs” (245).
Hall’s
discussion of literacy harkens back Perry Miller’s commentary on the state of
the New England Mind. In Errand into the
Wilderness (1956), Miller noted how Puritans stressed how the quest for
secular knowledge - a quest that serves as the foundation in Sarah Rivett's recent The Science of the Soul in Colonial New England (2011) - served to encourage the quest for grace. Knowledge, Miller
wrote, “is a part of theology” (Errand,
77). While this link between religion and literacy may seem self-evident – the
bibliocentric emphasis of Protestantism required a basic understanding of the printed
word (indeed, to read the Bible was to have contact with the Holy Spirit) –
nuances existed that truly made the two “inseparable” (38). Since formal
primary education was nonexistent, learning in the household entailed the use
of primers and catechisms that were made available from the New England book
trade that saw a rapid rate of growth after the 1660s. More subtly, literacy
allowed the laity a sense of agency, contributing to the “myth of freedom from
the tyranny of priests” (52). Most importantly, literacy facilitated the
creation of a distinct vernacular based upon references to popular print
culture but especially to the Scriptures. This vernacular was both democratic
and pervasive, allowing all members of the community to express their place
within a world that not quite understood. In the words of Hall: it “left no social
group untouched” (69).
It
is interesting that Hall’s work appeared around the same time as Tessa Watt’s study on
cheap print culture in Reformation England. In Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640, Watt argues, “Cheap print
in this period was just as likely to be an instrument of social cohesion, as
more people were brought into the reading public, and as stories, images, and
values permeated the multiple tiers of English society” (Cheap Print, 5). Hall’s assertion for “commonness” (11) draws a
similar path, extending the discussion of popular religion to include more than
just print culture, but the importance of ritual as well. The pages devoted to
ritual are some the most noteworthy, especially the comments regarding
witch-hunts. For Hall, witch–hunts such as the Salem trials unfolded along
elaborate rituals of revenge, confession, and fasting. These connections are
important, although the complexity of what occurred at Salem has lent itself to
a variety of interpretations; most recently, Mary Beth Norton in In the Devil’s Snare (2002) has argued
for the primacy of psychological trauma experienced during the Indian wars of
the late seventeenth century when considering the events of 1692.
Which
brings us to one of the glaring omissions of an otherwise substantial work: the
relative lack of commentary regarding the Native Americans. King Philip’s War
is mentioned rarely, as is the group as a whole. One would imagine that more
attention would be paid to the Native Americans, who represented a cultural
antithesis to the colonists. A comparative study is not necessary – Neal
Sailsbury’s Manitou and Providence
(1982) remains useful - but perhaps more
could be stated regarding Native American depictions in print culture, both
locally and abroad. Similarly, did the vernacular that developed through
educational practices get employed vis-à-vis
Anglo-Amerindian relations? Regardless of the conspicuous absence of the Native
Americans, Hall’s work remains an important contribution to our understanding
of colonial New England.
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