Meetinghouse Hill, 1630-1783

the long version

"The story of religion in colonial America has been told many times and with many different accents. This book dares tell it once again, this time with the colonial meetinghouse of early New England in sharp focus. The object is not to repeat the familiar outline of early religious history, nor to exhibit the meetinghouse as a period piece, but so far as it is possible to put in back on Meetinghouse Hill, where it stood in the day of its authority, and, by recalling typical procedures in relation to various aspects of community life, to suggest attitudes which it helped to establish and patterns of group action which it helped to make habitual."--Preface.