Lesley A. Rowe
210 pages
"Puritan preachers were inevitably rated first by their hearers, and later by their readers. Arthur Hildersham (1563-1632) was rightly ranked in the top tier of godly ministers, but in this first book-length study of his life Dr. Lesley Rowe demonstrates that his influence extended far beyond his pulpit and even his parish. Hildersham's friendships, political connections, and expansive correspondence helped to shape a generation of English Christians and impacted theologians of the Dutch Second Reformation as well. Rowe offers a sweeping and sympathetic study of her subject, and writes in a godly strain which honours, and would no doubt please, Master Hildersham himself. One task of a biographer is to create a likeness that a subject's contemporaries could recognize. Rowe performs this task ably, and there can be little doubt that this first sustained treatment of so substantial a figure will inspire further academic work on Hildersham and his circle as scholars continue to map both persons and places of theological significance in early modern England." - Chad Van Dixhoorn, associate pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church, Vienna, Virginia, and editor of the Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643 - 1652