First American Evangelical: A Short Life of Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) was America’s most famous pastor
and scholar at the beginning of the eighteenth century. People
today generally associate him with the infamous Salem witch
trials, but that picture has mostly come down to us from one
unreliable, antagonistic source.

This biography by Rick Kennedy, based largely on new research
by an international team of scholars, corrects misconceptions
of Cotton Mather and focuses on the way he tried to promote,
socially and intellectually, a biblical lifestyle. As older Puritan
hopes in New England were giving way to a broader and shallower
Protestantism, Mather led a populist, Bible-oriented
movement that embraced the new century – the beginning
of a dynamic evangelical tradition that eventually became a
major force in American culture.