The Pauline epistles provided the theological inspiration for the religious revolution known as the Protestant Reformation, the legacy of which was still being given form during Cotton Mather s lifetime and career. Mather s commentary gives voice to the ongoing struggle between Protestants and Catholics, and between Protestants of many stripes. But another revolution was also taking place during Mather s lifetime, one that was equally important for his thought: modernity. Mather s Pauline commentary was profoundly shaped by this development, as he attempted to discover the meaning of Paul s writings in their original context, and as he attempted to make sense of those writings against the shifting backdrop of new discoveries in natural philosophy, history, and cultural studies. ukryj opis