God's plot
Subtitle: Puritan spirituality in Thomas Shepard's Cambridge
By: edited by Michael McGiffert.
Contributors: McGiffert, Michael.
Edition: Rev. and expanded ed.
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Amherst
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
Subjects: Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.; Puritans -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge -- Clergy -- Biography.; Puritans -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge -- History -- 17th century.; Cambridge (Mass.) -- Church history -- 17th century.; Massachusetts -- Church history -- 17th century.
Description: First issued some twenty years ago, Michael McGiffert's edition of God's Plot brought into print the autobiography and journal of Thomas Shepard, Puritan writer, minister at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a leading architect of New England's church way. Since then, a generation of scholars has drawn on these documents to enhance our understanding of American Puritan spirituality and religious psychology.

In this revised edition, Shepard's autobiography is reprinted in full along with a portion of his journal. Supplementing these texts are confessions of religious experience given by applicants for membership in the Cambridge congregation. These lay narratives, recorded by Shepard, bring to life the religious experiences of a broad spectrum of people. At the same time, they explore the dynamic interaction between clergy and laity that formed the crux of Puritan passion and power.

The revised edition also contains new material reviewing recent trends of scholarship that update McGiffert's original introduction, long recognized for its important contribution to Puritan studies.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-230) and index.
Table of contents: title: Thomas Shepard : the practice of piety; title: The autobiography; title: The journal; title: The people speak : confessions of lay men and women; title: The confessions.