Unity in Diversity: English Puritans and the Puritan Reformation 1603-1689

Unity in Diversity presents a fresh appraisal of the vibrant and diverse culture of Stuart Puritanism. This work provides a historiographical and historical survey of current issues within Puritanism, critiques notions of Puritanisms, which tend to fragment the phenomenon, and introduces unitas within diversitas in three divergent Puritans, John Downame, Francis Rous, and Tobias Crisp. This study draws on insights from these three figures to propose that seventeenth-century English Puritanism should be thought of both in terms of Familienähnlichkeit, in which there are strong theological and social semblances across Puritans of divergent persuasions, and in terms of the greater narrative of the Puritan Reformation, which united Puritans in their quest to reform their church and society.