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A study of the rise and decline of puritanism in England and New England that focuses on the role of godly men and women. It explores the role of family devotions, lay conferences, prophesying and other means by which the laity influenced puritan belief and practice, and the efforts of the clergy to reduce lay power in the seventeenth century.

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Contents 1. The Experience and Meaning of God´s Caress 2. Thinking of the Laity in the English Reformation 3. Lay Puritans in Stuart England 4. Gatherings of the Saints in England and the Netherlands 5. Shaping the New England Way 6. The Free Grace Controversy and Redefining the Role of Lay Believers 7. The Role of the Laity in England´s Puritan Revolution 8. Varieties of Lay Enthusiasm in New England and England 9. Responding to the Challenges of Diversity, 1640-1660 10. Clergy and Laity in the Later Seventeenth Century

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"This book´s spatial and temporal framework make it especially illuminating. Bremer is not the first historian to situate Puritanism in its transatlantic context, but he renders that context more useful by making it multidirectional." (Shelby M. Balik, Journal of American History, Vol. 103 (1), June, 2016)

"Lay Empowerment, while drawing on some primary source material, predominantly assembles existing research in a useful new framework that emphasizes how central the laity were to the development of puritanism. ... the study as a whole offers a valuable account of the lay contribution to puritanism´s coherence and dynamism across its diverse manifestations." (Kate Narveson, American Historical Review, Vol. 121 (3), June, 2016)

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Francis J. Bremer is Professor Emeritus of History at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University, the University of Cambridge, and Trinity College. He has authored and edited a total of sixteen other books on puritanism in the Atlantic world, including the prize-winning John Winthrop: America´s Forgotten Founding Father (2003) and Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, a Puritan in Three Worlds (2012).

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