159 - The Worship of the American Puritans, 1629-1730

The Worship of the American Puritans, 1629-1730
By Horton Davies
New York, Peter Lang, 1990. 292 pp. $49.95.

As a graduate student of Horton Davies in the 1960s, I became familiar with some central themes that have run through much of his work, including this volume. Among these themes are the centrality of ritual and its setting for the phenomenon of religion and the importance of public worship in the expression of Christianity. With this book, Davies, who began his studies of worship with the English Puritans and then in a magisterial series of volumes swept through the English religious experience from the Reformation to the present on the same topic, has completed the treatment of the Puritans with which he began by examining Puritan worship in colonial America. Clearly and gracefully written, like all his books, this volume provides for the specialist information not otherwise easily available on the details of sacramental practice, ordinations, weddings, funerals, and psalmody while giving the general reader a sympathetic introduction to attitudes about prayer, sermons, and meeting-houses in Puritan New England. Davies is not reticent in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Puritan "plainness and purity" in worship, making this book helpful for those who today consider the appropriate direction for Reformed worship.

Dewey D. Wallace, Jr.
George Washington University
Washington, DC.