Religious polemics of new England of the 17th century: “the half-way covenant”

This article is devoted to the consideration of the question of the entry of new members into the Church of New England of the XVII century, which gave rise to problems related to the baptism of “unconverted” and unequal parishioners and their children; to the study of the subsequent attempt to resolve the accumulated contradictions by the so-called “Half-Way Covenant”, that will lead to prolonged controversy and schisms not only in Puritan churches, but also in the New England society, which will become one of the main factors for the spiritual decline of Congregationalism. However, it is the controversy about the “Half-Way Covenant”, as the researchers of this period believe, that will lead to a rethinking of the understanding of man and his religious experience in the Puritan church, making it possible to go beyond the narrow framework of “closed sectarianism” towards greater openness and pluralism.