Introduction

Summary

The initial premise of this book is that a serious study of the Puritan sense of time and view of history is warranted and in some respects long overdue. Throughout history religious movements have constructed new modes of historical thought and presented their own vision of history in order to explain and justify their rise and appearance upon the stage of history. In this context, the Puritan migration to America was, by its very nature as an ideological movement, no exception. The Puritans sought to construe a meaningful sacred, historical context within which to explain their removal to, and presence in, the wilderness of America within the course and progress of salvation history (Heilsgeschichte) – the unfolding story of God's plan of salvation and redemption – or within the annals of ecclesiastical history. Almost inevitably, then, as this study will attempt to show, serious analysis of the Puritan philosophy of history is indispensable in order to understand the meaning and significance which Puritans conferred on their action within the confines of the history of salvation, or within the unfolding drama of salvation and redemption, and how they understood their role in the context of the sacred history of the church upon earth.

The Puritan migration to New England was based essentially upon a welldefined Christian philosophy, or ideology, of history according to which Puritans explained their migration to and experience in the wilderness of America.