GUIDE TO THE PURITANS

Description

ROBERT MARTIN

he writings of the Puritans, states Robert P. Martin in his preface, ‘are a rich banquet table loaded with solid nourishment for God’s people.’ And yet, this banquet is often hard to access because it can be difficult to know where to start with the Puritans or where to find help on a specific topic or text of Scripture. Martin’s Guide, available for the first time in hardback, aims to help the would-be feaster access the nourishment available from the Puritans and their successors. That last word is significant, because the scope of Martin’s indexing work extended not merely to those in the 16th and 17th centuries who might properly be called ‘Puritans, ‘ but also to figures of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries who have stood in the Reformed, evangelical tradition of the Puritans, both feeding on and developing their approach. This is neither a scholarly apparatus nor a comprehensive guide to the corpus of Puritan writing. However, it is a helpful orientation to a tradition, and a guide for those with an appetite to read the Puritans and their successors more, and to read them better. Those in search of what the Puritans had to say on specific topics and texts, and those eager for some direction in their reading, will be well served by the indexing labours of Robert P. Martin. – Broad: This guide uses the term Puritan in the broader sense of those advocating the experiential, calvinistic religion which the Puritans exemplified. It also includes their close theological kin, including such men as Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, B. B. Warfield, etc. – Accessible: The works referenced in this guide have been intentionally limited to exclude works which are only available in libraries or private collections, and rather includes recently republished works which readers would be able to locate and purchase for their use. – Balanced: Though efforts have been made to include all older works that are currently available, this guide also includes a sampling of work from living or recently deceased authors.