Philip J. Greven - The Protestant Temperament

Four Generations:
Population, Land, and Family
in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts
(1970)

Child-Rearing Concepts, 16281861:
Historical Sources
(1973)

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.

Copyright 1977 by Philip J. Greven, Jr.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York.

Since this page cannot legibly accommodate all permissions acknowledgments, they can be found on .

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Greven, Philip J. The protestant temperament.

Bibliography: p.
1. ProtestantismUnited States. 2. Child development. 3. Temperament. 4. Experience (Religion) 5. Religious thoughtUnited States. I. Title.
BR515.G75 1977 301.58 77-74989
eISBN: 978-0-307-83134-7

v3.1

For my grandmother
J ULIA O SBORN H AWKINS

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:912

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

R EADERS FAMILIAR WITH MY FIRST BOOK , Four Generations, may wonder how I came to write a book called The Protestant Temperament. Although the reasons undoubtedly are rooted in my own childhood, life experiences, and psyche, I can at least locate the moment when I became preoccupied with some of the issues explored in the following pages: William R. Taylors colloquium on revivalism in which I participated at Harvard during the spring of 1959. The questions we raised in that remarkable course (but rarely answered satisfactorily) have continued to intrigue me.

One of the great pleasures of scholarship is the opportunity to share ideas and concerns with others and to benefit from the assistance, advice, suggestions, and criticisms of students, colleagues, and friends. I am grateful to the many students in my courses over the years who have listened and responded to my hypotheses, intuitions, and interpretations. I have appreciated the assistance of Denis Johnson and Louis Kern in locating sources and doing some research, and of Charles Carmony, who helped with the task of putting the final manuscript in order and doing the index. At various stages, drafts of the manuscript have been read, commented upon, and criticized most helpfully by Mary Maples Dunn, Richard S. Dunn, Jane N. Garrett, Helen Stokes Greven, Michael G. Kammen, Elizabeth D. Kirk, Gerald F. Moran, Carol M. Petillo, and Michael G. Vaught. In addition, Rhys Isaac and Warren I. Susman scrutinized one of the late drafts of the manuscript with particular care and provided me with invaluable commentaries. I wish to thank all of these individuals for their encouragement and the candor with which they expressed their disagreements and suggestions. None is responsible, however, for the book that I have written. This is a responsibility they cannot be asked to share, since this book, more than many, is very much the result of a personal interpretation of the meaning of the evidence that I have gathered and sought to understand.

Thanks to invitations by Irwin Pollack, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Rutgers Medical SchoolCollege of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and by Iradj Siassi, formerly the Chief of the Adult Psychiatric Service of the Rutgers Medical School, I was able to participate as a volunteer trainee in an adult outpatient treatment program for nearly a year and a half. The experience, both theoretical and practical, was extraordinarily valuable to me and has had an important impact upon my awareness of the ways in which the human psyche shapes our experience and thought.

Without the generous support of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (19701971), the American Council of Learned Societies (19741975), and RutgersThe State University of New Jersey, I would not have been able to do the research and to write the book as freely and as expeditiously as I have. I am very grateful to Clifford Geertz and Carl Kaysen for the invitation to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton as a Visiting Fellow in 19741975. The Institute provided a beautiful and supportive setting for the writing of the manuscript for this book as well as excellent secretarial assistance and typing. In addition, I have been most appreciative of the generosity of Elsie Perkins Youngman, who graciously offered me the use of a cabin in the New Hampshire woods for several summers while I wrote and revised various parts of this book. I also wish to thank the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (especially Jane Garrett, Alice Quinn, and Sally Rogers), for their suggestions and help.

Every scholar shares an abiding sense of gratitude for the generous and invaluable assistance of the librarians, archivists, and members of the staffs of university libraries and historical societies throughout the country. My own indebtedness to particular libraries is acknowledged elsewhere in this book.

Given my concerns with the history of childhood and the family, I am acutely aware of the subtle but profoundly important ways in which personal experience always shapes our historical concerns. As always, Helen, my wife, has encouraged and supported me in my work even when her own work left little time for involvement with mine. Hannah (who is seven now) cannot remember a time when I was not at work on this book, and undoubtedly will be relieved to see it completed. Philip (who is ten) has been generous in his willingness to have me spend so much time for so many years upon this project. My children have taught me far more than I can ever acknowledge, and the responsibilities of parenthood have constantly sharpened my sensitivity to the varied responses of other parents whose choices, actions, and values are explored in this book. To each of the members of my own family, I continue to be permanently indebted for their understanding, support, and love.

By dedicating this book to my grandmother Julia Osborn Hawkins, I wish to acknowledge the enduring influence that she has had upon my life and upon my awareness of the significance which religious beliefs and experience can have in a persons life. My grandmother has always been a very special person to me, and I shall always be grateful that she was so much a part of my own personal past and that she continues even now as part of my present life.