Publication

1986 - Oxford University Press, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

99,500 words, Guess

Page Count

398 pages

Physical Format

Hardcover

Identifiers

and 3 more
  • Library of Congress Control Number85029853
  • Goodreads4048538
  • LibraryThing505591

Classifications

  • DDC251/.00974
  • LCCBV4208.U6 S75 1986

Description

This study explores a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century medium of communications -- the New England sermon -- whose topical range and social influence were so powerful in shaping cultural values, meanings, and a sense of corporate purpose that even television pales in comparison. Unlike modern mass media, the sermon stood alone in local New England contexts as the only regular (at least weekly) medium of public communication. As a channel of information, it combined religious, educational, and journalistic functions, and supplied all the key terms necessary to understand existence in this world and the next. As the only event in public assembly that regularly brought the entire community together, it also represented the central ritual of social order and control. Seldom, if ever before, did so many people hear the same message of purpose and direction over so long a period of time as did the New England "Puritans." - Introduction.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • The New England soul: preaching and religious culture in colonial New EnglandHardcoverOxford University Press1986-01-01

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