| Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America Subjects: Puritans -- Doctrines -- History -- 17th century; Puritans -- Doctrines -- History -- 18th century; United States -- Religion -- To 1800; Puritans -- Influence; Business -- Religious aspects -- Christianity; Heavenly Merchandize offers a critical reexamination of religion's role in the creation of a market economy in early America. Focusing on the economic culture of New England, it views commerce through the eyes of four generations of Boston merchants, drawing upon their personal letters, diaries, business records, and sermon notes to reveal how merchants built a modern form of exchange out of profound transitions in the puritan understanding of discipline, providence, and the meaning of New England. Mark Valeri is the Ernest Trice Thompson Professor of Church History at the Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Virginia. His books include Law and Providence in Joseph Bellamy's New England: The Origins of the New Divinity in Revolutionary America and The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 17: Sermons and Discourses, 1730-1733 . |