num_pages: 187
description: Hardcover in dust jacket. Gray cloth, by Patricia Ann Watson, published 1991 by University of Tennesse Press. Publisher's "The Puritan settlers of New England believed that bodily ills were God's way of punishing individual or collective sin. Ministers, as spiritual leaders of their congregations, often both interpreted and treated parishoners' physical afflictions. This study reveals for the first time the nature, extent and socioeconomic context of the 'angelical conjunction'--the widespread dual practice of medicine and religion by early New England preachers. Several factors encouraged ministers to learn the medical arts. An English precedent existed, as politically dissenting seventeenth-century ministers had found medicine a useful secondary profession. In the New England colonies, there were few trained physicians, and a folk-healing tradition often was linked to witchcraft. In addition, clergymen were frequently dismissed by increasingly contentious congregations and
language: English
title: The Angelical Conjunction: The Preacher-Physicians of Colonial New England
titlecomplete: The Angelical Conjunction: The Preacher-Physicians of Colonial New England
ratings_count: 2
publisher: Univ of Tennessee Pr