The Devil's Mousetrap

The Devil''s Mousetrap approaches the thought of three colonial New England divines--Increase Mather Jonathan Edwards and Edward Taylor--from the perspective of literary theory. Author Linda Munk focuses on the background of these men''s ideas and on the sources from which they drew both directly and indirectly in framing their theology. She notes that the language used in the pulpit by Mather Edwards and Taylor is full of allusions to the Bible and Apocrypha to Puritan treatises and to post-biblical exegesis Jewish and Christian. Munk proceeds to unpack many allusions that have for the most part proven to be unclear to contemporary readers in order to provide essential insights into the construction of Puritan theology.