The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism

''Puritan'' was originally a term of contempt and ''Puritanism'' has often been stereotyped by critics and admirers alike. As a distinctive and particularly intense variety of early modern Reformed Protestantism it was a product of acute tensions within the post-Reformation Church of England. But it was never monolithic or purely oppositional and its impact reverberated far beyond seventeenth-century England and New England. This Companion broadens our understanding of Puritanism showing how students and scholars might engage with it from new angles and uncover the surprising diversity that fermented beneath its surface. The book explores issues of gender literature politics and popular culture in addition to addressing the Puritans'' core concerns such as theology and devotional praxis and coverage extends to Irish Welsh Scottish and European versions of Puritanism as well as to English and American practice. It challenges readers to re-evaluate this crucial tradition within its wider social cultural political and religious contexts.