Minta, Kojo
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Publication From the Editor(2008-10-01) Minta, KojoThe Editorial Board is pleased to present the first issue of the sixteenth volume of the Penn History Review. The Review continues to publish outstanding undergraduate papers based on original primary research. This issue of the Review will be different from previous ones, in that its focus is on the intersection of Postcolonial, Subaltern and Transnational Studies within the study of History.Publication From the Editor(2009-04-01) Minta, KojoThe Editorial Board is pleased to present the second issue of the fifteenth volume of the Penn History Review, the Ivy League’s oldest undergraduate history journal. The Review continues to publish outstanding undergraduate papers based on original primary research. The Board is proud to feature scholarship that maintains our tradition of insightful and diverse historiography. These papers span not only centuries and geographic regions, but also across disciplines in the study of history. The authors published in this issue approach their historical inquiries with a particular respect to the larger theme of exploration. In addition to providing four exemplary student essays, this issue of the Review also offers a special section entitled ‘The Study of History.’Publication The Aesthetic of the Ascetic(2009-04-01) Minta, KojoKojo Minta, College '09, European History, Classical Studies, Religious Studies The Aesthetic of the Ascetic This study examines the casuistry of William Perkins in order to reconcile differing contemporary representations of the puritan tradition. These differing conceptions centered on whether puritan doctrine produced comfort, or despair. Puritan divines acknowledged that despair was a serious issue among their flock, and the varied works read and composed by the godly indicate a sustained engagement with despair, which was often precipitated by uncertainty over the assurance of one’s election. In Reformation theology, however, the doctrine of election was viewed as providing uncommon comfort to the believer. Reading Perkins’ casuistry allows us to understand that puritan divines did believe that the doctrines they espoused represented comfort, but that they also realized that, paradoxically, the more developed one’s conscience, the more likely one was to realize more fully the wretchedness of one’s sin and thus fall into despair. The casuistry of Perkins, specifically, his Cases of Conscience, are emblematic of a conscious and concerted effort on the part of Elizabethan divines in the 1590s both to preempt and treat a specific malady, despair, among the godly.