A Puritan Connection to the Upcoming Star Trek Film?

Warning: prepare yourself for a strange hybrid of theological and scifi geekery!

If you are a fan of Star Trek, you may have already seen the trailer for the upcoming Star Trek film "Star Trek Into Darkness". In the trailer, we are given a glimpse of the villain, though we are not given his name. There is speculation in may be Khan, the best known foil to Captain Kirk. There is also some buzz that it may be Gary Mitchell, a villain from the original series (he appeared in the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). When I heard that the villain maybe Mitchell, I looked him up.

Here is the article I found: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gary_Mitchell 

In that article, the writers state that Mitchell, who develops super-human traits after an encounter with the galactic barrier (I warned you this would get geeky!), should "become oracular, in the sense of Moses or even Cotton Mather."

Well, there you have it. If the villain of the upcoming Star Trek film does indeed turn out to be Gary Mitchell, remember that part of the original inspiration for the character was none other than the Puritan, Cotton Mather himself!

Puritan Library

Last week, I encouraged you to read the puritans and pointed you to an article by Joel Beeke highlighting many excellent reasons to do just that. Today, I have been shown a resource devoted to helping you do just that. PuritanLibrary.com is a site which allows free access to hundreds of Puritan writings from a variety of authors. The site is run by the same fine folks who run Monergism.com (and MonergismBooks.com which is a great source for buying books!).

Two notes about PuritanLibrary.com: First, everything is available as PDFs. This is a good thing and I'm glad they chose this format as opposed to plain text files or some obscure file format. Second, the texts are not searchable. I wish they were, but even without this function, it is still a great resource.

Now, go and read the Puritans!

EDITED TO ADD: Upon further inspection, I realize not everything is available as a PDF file. Some links are to Google Books, and some are to HTML pages. Despite this, I still think it is a wonderful site!

Read the Puritans!

Joel Beeke has posted an excellent article over at Ligonier Ministries site entitled "Why You Should Read the Puritans." He gives a brief summary of just exactly who the Puritans were, and then lists nine excellent reasons why you should be reading them:

1. Puritan writings help shape life by Scripture
2. Puritan writings show how to integrate biblical doctrine into daily life
3. Puritan writings show how to exalt Christ and see His beauty
4. Puritan writings reveal the Trinitarian character of theology
5. Puritan writings show you how to handle trials
6. Puritan writings explain true spirituality
7. Puritan writings show how to live by wholistic faith
8. Puritan writings teach the importance and primacy of preaching
9. Puritan writings show how to live in two worlds

I could not agree more with what he has to say. The Puritans represent one of the most pure forms of Biblical Christianity ever in the history of the Church. We all could learn so much by reading what these godly saints have to say, and so I exhort you: Read the Puritans!