The article examines the role of the family in Puritan theology, as expressd in popular and political sermons. It does not treat the extensive Puritan household manuals, nor does it argue that Puritan strictures on the family were especially unique or original. However, by examining the often figurative use of the family in Puritan theology, it argues that the Puritan obsession with the subject reflected a deep crisis in contemporary family relations and that the emotions produced by this crisis were then exploited by the preachers to create both Puritanism itself and the radical political ideology of the 1640s.
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