THE PURITAN NATION'S DEMOTIC ART::

It seems counterintuitive, perhaps, that Christians within the Reformed tradition who hold to the doctrine of predestination would place so much emphasis on persuasive preaching. If salvation is predestined, why even bother to try to persuade anyone? But, as Parry explains, the Calvinistic view of predestination is not the same as "a deterministic fatalism that denies any role whatsoever for human agency." Rather, the Puritan divines believed, as Parry shows, that "God uses temporal means to accomplish his eternal purposes." Persuasive preaching and writing are just such temporal means.

It is impossible, of course, to cover nearly anything within Puritan history without addressing the complicated question of how Puritan is defined. Parry sketches out this problem and offers that, for the purposes of his analysis, Puritanism consists of both a movement not only "to protest against perceived external corruption" but also one "focused on the internal spiritual condition of individuals." In this respect, the persuasive powers of these Puritan preachers and writers were, Parry shows, concerned not only with conversion but with ongoing sanctification, too.

While the Puritans are famous for their "plain style" of preaching and writing, Parry demonstrates that this approach "was not an abandonment of eloquence," but rather, and more interestingly, "a concealing of eloquence." Such a rhetorical strategy prioritizes "the transparent communication of truth over the ostentatious display of learning and eloquence." Thus, the book explores the relationship between rhetoric and what was termed at that time "practical divinity," meaning pastoral teaching and care that attempts to help ordinary people apply doctrine and theology in their everyday lives, first in being converted, and then in living holy lives. For Puritan divines seeking to so persuade those under their influence and care, that meant using language in ways that would transform a person's reason, imagination, and will.

Though underappreciated today, this intricate relationship between rhetoric and theology is one about which our Puritan forebears have much to teach us. To examine the persuasive appeal of a range of rhetorical strategies, Parry considers closely the works of a small but representative group of Puritans. The group includes those well-known to most readers--Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, John Milton--as well as the lesser known but equally exemplary preachers Richard Sibbes and William Perkins.

Those passingly familiar with writers like Bunyan and Milton--both of whom despite producing massive bodies of didactic treatises and essays are best known for their imaginative works--might wonder how such a commitment to truth over style applies to them. Parry answers this question insightfully and delightfully.

A further question is not just how, but why, imaginative works of literature can be so theologically, as well as aesthetically, persuasive. Parry explains, "It is also the pastoral impulse to persuade their readers into saving truth that leads some Puritan writers to deploy the somewhat undercover modes of imaginative fiction." Indeed, it is one of the great ironies of literary history that Puritan writers--in their suspicion of fiction--wrote instead allegories, epics, and spiritual autobiographies that laid the groundwork for the most significant and influential literary genre of the modern era: the novel.

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