Originally published on July 8, 2015 (Episode 21)
Introduction
Historically Thinking returned from summer break (or, more precisely, Al Zambone did) with a blockbuster on…a colonial New England theologian. Cotton Mather (1663–1728) spent his life in Boston’s North End, son and grandson of Boston preachers, but his influence extended across momentous cultural, political, and religious transitions. He was a man with very few unwritten thoughts, producing innumerable sermons and writings while navigating controversies like the Halfway Covenant, the Salem Witch Trials, and the smallpox inoculation debate.
Rick Kennedy, Professor of History at Point Loma Nazarene College and author of The First American Evangelical: A Short Life of Cotton Mather (Eerdmans, 2015), joined Al to explore Mather’s remarkable life and legacy.
About the Guest
Rick Kennedy is Professor of History at Point Loma Nazarene College.
For Further Investigation
Rick Kennedy, The First American Evangelical: A Short Life of Cotton Mather (Eerdmans, 2015)
Michael G. Hall, The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather (Wesleyan, 1988)
Kenneth Silverman, The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (Welcome Rain, 2001)
Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The ecclesiastical history of New-England, from its first planting in the year 1620 unto the year of Our Lord, 1698 (Thomas Parkhurst, London: 1702)
💬 Listen & Discuss
What can Cotton Mather’s life teach us about continuity and change in colonial New England? How do we judge a man remembered mainly for the Salem Witch Trials when he did so much else? Share your thoughts in the comments—and pass this episode to someone curious about Puritanism.
