Of the traditions that shaped evangelical Christianity, Puritanism is surely among the most significant–and the most maligned. Two reissues bring our Puritan heritage to life. Francis J. Bremer’s “The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards” (University Press of New England, 255 pp.; $19.95, paper) is a historical overview. First published in 1976 and now available in a revised edition, Bremer’s study comes with an impressive endorsement from Harry Stout of Yale University, who calls it “the best survey of Puritanism I have ever read.” J. I. Packer’s “A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life” (Crossway, 367 pp.; $14.99, paper), first published in 1990, is theological and practical in its emphases. Packer’s enthusiasm for the English Puritans John Owen and Richard Baxter is contagious. “I hope these chapters will excite you,” Packer writes, “for in them I share discoveries that for forty years have been exciting me.”
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