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Auctoritas Patrum?: The Reception of the Church Fathers in Puritanism BY ANN-STEPHANE SCHÄFER PETER LANG, 449 PAGES, $109. 95
It is well known that the New England Puritan divines took great pride in their libraries. John Winthrop was reported to have one thousand volumes, and the Mather family-Richard, Increase, Cotton, and Samuel-put together a collection so large that one contemporary called it the "Glory of New England." What is less known is that these early American libraries were well stocked with writings from the Church Fathers and the medieval schoolmen.
In this learned and original study, Ann-Stephane Schä fer shows in great detail how much Puritan thinkers owe to early Christian writings. Though the Puritans believed in the primacy of Scripture, they...