This book presents a revolutionary new reading of manuscript records left by puritan minister Thomas Shepard in Cambridge, Massachusetts that have been studied for decades as his on-the-spot recording of oral relations of faith delivered by candidates for church membership. This book proves that these records are not relations, but Shepard's personal record of sessions of trialmeetings with candidates still working out their spiritual seeking. New transcriptions of the original manuscript records, and corresponding never-before-published writing by Shepard, dispel much of the confusion produced by the published transcriptions. Close-readings of the manuscripts, contrasted with the published transcriptions, set the stage for a new understanding of puritan spiritual preparation in Shepard's Cambridge church. The book concludes with a challenge to the negative reading of the women's records that is central to established scholarship, revealing their powerful, confident spiritual identities and voices.

Provides a fundamentally new understanding of the Shepard manuscripts that is based on the author's new transcription Concludes that these are not records of relations, but Shepard's personal records of trial sessions Restores the vital personal agency of the women involved in the Shepard manuscript

Autorentext

Lori Rogers-Stokes, Ph.D., is an independent scholar and contributing editor for New England's Hidden Histories. She studies the founding decades of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during which forms of church and state were put in place that would shape American history for centuries to come.

Inhalt

1. Re-reading, Re-interpreting, and Recovering Priceless Texts.- 2. Close-Reading the Shepard Manuscripts.- 3. Venture and Try: Women Taking the Ultimate Leap ofFaith.- 4. The Shepard Context.- 5. Heroic Souls: Reading the Cambridge Women's Records.- 6. Conclusion.