Puritanism and remained closely related to it.”^65 Brauer published a number of
articles since his thesis, the most recently in 1987. However, nothing significant
changed in his position and Rous is still the only moderate Puritan listed among his
candidates for Puritan mysticism.^66 Further, Brauer misreads Wakefield in asserting
he denied the possibility of mysticism within Puritanism.^67
More helpful for the broader study of Puritan mysticism is the pioneering
research of Geoffrey Nuttall. While his earlier and still seminal work on The Holy
Spirit in Puritan Faith and Experience tended to privilege the more radical stream of
Quaker mysticism his recent article has focused more exclusively on the prospect of
mysticism within moderate Puritanism.^68 A significant difference between Brauer and
Nuttall is the latter’s broader definition that eschews the traditional three-fold manner
of defining mysticism. Nuttall helpfully illustrates the reality of mystical writings in
Puritans using John Preston, Rous, Rowland Stedman, and Edward Polhill. Further,
all four writers employ the allegorical reading of the Song of Songs.^69
Obviously Brauer and Nuttall believe that there is some expression of
mysticism within the Puritans, or least one stream of it. They are certainly not alone
in this assessment. Moreover the seventeenth-century was a fertile period for the
development of renewed spirituality and “affective devotion” in both Protestant and
Roman Catholic churches.^70 The Protestant expressions included the Puritans as well
as Pietism on the Continent while within Roman Catholicism this was manifested in
(^65) Brauer, “Francis Rous, Puritan Mystic,” 329. (^)
(^66) Brauer, “Types of Puritan Piety,” 53-8.
(^67) Brauer, “Types of Puritan Piety,” 40n6.
(^68) Nuttall, “Puritan and Quaker Mysticism.”
(^6970) Nuttall, “Puritan and Quaker Mysticism,” 521.
Hambrick-Stowe, Practice of Piety, 23.