John Eliot's Puritan Ministry to New England &quote;Indians&quote;

John Eliot (1604-90) has been called &quote;the apostle to the Indians.&quote; This book looks at Eliot not from the perspective of modern Protestant &quote;mission&quote; studies (the approach mainly adopted by previous research) but in the historical and theological context of seventeenth-century puritanism. Drawing on recent research on migration to New England, the book argues that Eliot, like many other migrants, went to New England primarily in search of a safe haven to practice pure reformed Christianity, not to convert Indians. Eliot's Indian ministry started from a fundamental concern for the conversion of the unconverted, which he derived from his experience of the puritan movement in England. Consequently, for Eliot, the notion of New England Indian &quote;mission&quote; was essentially conversion-oriented, Word-centered, and pastorally focused, and (in common with the broader aims of New England churches) pursued a pure reformed Christianity. Eliot hoped to achieve this through the establishment of Praying Towns organized on a biblical model--where preaching, pastoral care, and the practice of piety could lead to conversion--leading to the formation of Indian churches composed of &quote;sincere converts.&quote;