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Auctoritas Patrum? The Reception of the Church Fathers in Puritanism . By Ann-Stephane Schäfer . Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik 58. Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang , 2012. 453 pp. $109.95 cloth.
Book Reviews and Notes
Ann-Stephane Schäfer's study joins a growing number of scholars drawing attention to the use of patristic literature amongst early modern Protestants. Led by Irena Backus, the image of a biblicist Protestantism has been qualified to reveal indebtedness to patristic thought. Schäfer's book covers roughly the same chronological ground as Jean-Louis Quantin's The Church of England and Christian Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), but, whereas Quantin focuses upon Anglicans, Schäfer begins with William Perkins and ends with the ecclesiastical debates of the early eighteenth century in New England. Schäfer correctly observes that Puritan use of the church fathers has "received surprisingly little attention compared to the Puritans' strict adherence to sola scriptura" (20). Her study is poised to make a major contribution to our understanding of Puritanism.
Schäfer clearly states her theses. First, "Puritan exegesis is far from taking a one-dimensional Biblicist perspective but that it is in fact to a large extent informed by the interpretations of the church fathers" (22). Second, "the traditional typological interpretation of (New England) Puritanism as the embodiment of Old and New Testament types can be extended to apply to the early church as well" (23). Drawing upon Theodore Dwight Bozeman, she defines "Puritans" as dissenters from the Church...