The literature produced during the Puritan era was striking in its ever popular sermon format and its condescending tones. Authors like Jonathan Edwards and Michael Wigglesworth were not reluctant to use fear and intimidation to get their messages...

Explicit accounts of hellfire and damnation may not be the hallmarks of contemporary popular novels, but America's first bestseller was full of such shocking imagery. Graphic illustrations of the Christian faith's Judgment Day saturate Michael...