The importance of Congregationalism in early Massachusetts has engaged historians' attention for generations. This study is the first to approach the Puritan experience in Congregational church government from the perspective of both the pew and the pulpit.

By examining the development of church government through the perspective of lay-clerical interchange. Cooper offers a fresh understanding of the sometimes noble, sometimes sordid, and sometimes rowdy nature of church politics.

The study casts new light upon Anne Hutchinson and the "Antinomian Controversy," the Cambridge Platform, the Halfway Covenant, the Reforming Synod of 1679, and the long-standing debate over Puritan "declension." Cooper argues that in general church government did not divide Massachusetts culture along lay-clerical lines, but instead served as a powerful component of a popular religion and an ideology whose fundamentals were shared by churchgoers and most ministers throughout much of the colonial era.