The Myth of "Arminian-Calvinism" in Eighteenth-Century New England

Abstract

T HE development of Puritan thought in New England has long provided both a classic illustration of intellectual transformation and an indispensable foundation for understanding early American intellectual and cultural history. The Puritans who established the New England settlements and first guided them in the seventeenth century espoused a basically Calvinist theology.' As the decades slipped past, according to the traditional interpretation, Puritan Calvinism subtly changed so that by the time of the Great Awakening (1739-1745) New England Puritans held doctrines affirming human ability to move toward salvation even though they used traditional Calvinist formulations about human inability and predestination. Although the basic structure of the interpretation is much older than his writings,2 Perry Miller built the most pervasively and persuasively influential interpretation of the development of Puritan theology in New England. Virtually all analyses of Puritanism either parallel or incorporate his conclusions.3 Miller argued that from the start Puri-