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The Pauline epistles provided the theological inspiration for the religious revolution known as the Protestant Reformation, the legacy of which was still being given form during Cotton Mather s lifetime and career. Mather s commentary gives voice to the ongoing struggle between Protestants and Catholics, and between Protestants of many stripes.
But another revolution was also taking place during Mather s lifetime, one that was equally important for his thought: modernity. Mather s Pauline commentary was profoundly shaped by this development, as he attempted to discover the meaning of Paul s writings in their original context, and as he attempted to make sense of those writings against the shifting backdrop of new discoveries in natural philosophy, history, and cultural studies.

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