Popular literature and anti-Christian education have always slandered the Puritans. This book aims to correct many misconceptions we have about them, and demonstrate the biblical faithfulness Puritans displayed in marriage, family, society, and all of life. We appreciate that Ryken does not paint the Puritans as perfect—he certainly doesn't hide their faults—but he ably shows they weren't usually the stuffy prigs we imagine, but instead conscientious men and women who had a beautiful vision of culture.
"Ryken's Worldly Saints offers a fine introduction to seventeenth-century Puritanism in its English and American contexts. The work is rich in quotations from Puritan worthies and is ideally suited to general readers who have not delved widely into Puritan literature. It will also be a source of information and inspiration to those who seek a clearer understanding of the Puritan roots of American Christianity." —Harry Stout, Yale University
"The typical Puritans were not wild men, fierce and freaky, religious fanatics and social extremists, but sober, conscientious, and cultured citizens, persons of principle, determined and disciplined, excelling in the domestic virtues, and with no obvious shortcomings save a tendency to run to words when saying anything important, whether to God or to man. At last the record has been put straight."
—J. I. Packer, Regent College
"Worldly Saints provides a revealing treasury of primary and secondary evidence for understanding the Puritans, who they were, what they believed, and how they acted. This is a book of value and interest for scholars and students, clergy and laity alike." —Roland Mushat Frye, University of Pennsylvania
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