Bible Commonwealth

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BIBLE COMMONWEALTH

BIBLE COMMONWEALTH is a Christian theocratic political economy such as those of the Puritan colonies of Massachusetts Bay and New Haven, Connecticut. There, laws intended for the common good were based on the Bible and the right to vote was limited to church members. In a Bible commonwealth, civic officials wrote into law their interpretations of Bible commands; the economy subsidized Christian public education, printed materials, and ministers; and official religious and political duties often overlapped. An attempt to establish a Bible commonwealth is represented by the New Haven colony's use of An Abstract of the Lawes of New England (1641)—a code prepared by Massachusetts Bay minister John Cotton—as the basis of its government.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Heyrman, Christine Leigh. Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690–1750. New York: Norton, 1984.

Peterson, Mark A. The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.

DeirdreSheets

See alsoMassachusetts Bay Colony ; New England Colonies ; New Haven Colony .