Religio Peperit Divitas, & Filia Devoravit Matrem: Cotton Mather and the Moderate Gospel of Wealth

Abstract

Cotton Mather's role as a religious, political, and social leader has held a fascination for me ever since I was first exposed to the works of the great Puritan divine during my studies under the late Dr. Otho T. Beall at the University of Maryland, College Park. This study pursues two aims: to examine Max Weber's theory of the Protestant Ethic in selected works of Cotton Mather, and to remove some of the popular misunderstandings of Mather's role in Puritan New England.