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Originally Posted by KenPierce  Quote:
Originally Posted by VirginiaHuguenot Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Ritchie This post has been on half a day, and Andrew Myers still has not commented?  | Perry Miller wrote two books with this title: The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939) and The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (1953). Which one are you reading? Both are on my wish list. Miller is a respected historian, but should always be read with caution. Puritanism - questions about Perry Miller, William Haller, and Edmund Morgan | Respected by whom? Marsden's assessment of Miller (at least in part), "MIller's portrait is to Edwards what Hamlet is to the actual Danish prince, a triumph of the imagination."
That's the kiss of death from historian to historian. Marsden is by far the best living historian of the American church. I side with him.
And Schlesinger was equally worthless, IMHO. Factual accuracy was not his forte; intellectual axe grinding is. |
Marsden was the preferred church historian of my former UNC professor, Bart Ehrman. I was not impressed. Miller is highly respected in academia and J.I. Packer, among others, commends Miller to students of Puritanism. I prefer to go back to the source material myself rather than wade through 20th century historians generally speaking, although Miller has a "sourcebook" of Puritan writings. I would rank Marsden and Miller similarly, gifted men, although I would not look to either one for the spiritual perspective required, imo, to be a truly good church historian.