Religion and Social Networks in New England, 1680–1765

While writing to an acquaintance, Jonathan Edwards observed, “the Church of God, in all Parts of the World, is but one.” Religious pamphlets, sermons, and other literature comprised a vital and (as Mark Valeri and Charles Clark note) “moral” market place for British and British American Protestants.  These materials persuaded, entertained, and gave individuals across the providential Atlantic a sense of community that often existed either alongside, or outside formal civic and church hierarchies.  Correspondence was another facet of these providential networks.   This loosely linked nebula of the pious, in turn, created a series of social networks.

This paper will focus specifically on the development of religious social network in colonial New England.  From the 1680s onward, the Puritan canopy faded as the region became more commercial, and more focused on individualism. I expect this paper to explore how tensions between colony and empire, the decline of the Puritan canopy, and the introduction of evangelism influenced the development and change of religious social networks.