Fiske, Sarah Symmes

views updated

FISKE, Sarah Symmes

Born 1652, Charleston, Massachusetts; died 2 December 1692, Braintree, Massachusetts

Daughter of Williams Symmes; married Moses Fiske, 1671; children: 14

Sarah Symmes Fiske was the granddaughter of the noted minister Zachariah Symmes and the daughter of a justice of the peace for the county of Middlesex. Her mother, whose name is unknown, died when she was very young. Her husband was ordained minister of the Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts, congregation. He had a profitable ministry, which included a house and six acres, as well as a substantial yearly income. Fiske and her husband had 14 children, which probably contributed to her early death.

Fiske's only published work is her spiritual autobiography, a document which she prepared for admission to church membership. A Confession of Faith; or, A Summary of Divinity (1704) was written in 1677, when Fiske was twenty-five years old. The manuscript circulated among her acquaintances for many years after her death, until it was printed. Such posthumous publication was common for works by early American women writers.

Whereas most spiritual autobiographies of the 17th century express the inner turmoil of the writer in the struggle for salvation, Fiske's confession is notable for its impersonal tone and religious erudition. Its highly structured form evidences her familiarity with Ramist logic, the system of reasoning used by the New England Puritans in their theological discourses. The form and content which Fiske chose for her confession reflect intense religious study. Each topic she discusses is broken into subtopics or subsets for definition and analysis; then each subset is further analyzed. Fiske's topics include the truth of the Bible, God's creation of the natural world, the Fall and its consequences, sin and death, grace and predestination, and the nature of Christ. She also discusses the organization of the church and the significance of the sacraments. She concludes with a brief but striking apocalyptic vision. Puritan historiography—that is, history viewed as God's redemptive scheme—provides the organizing principle for her beliefs, as she discusses events from the beginning of time to the end of the world.

Fiske's work is not outstanding for its originality of thought or style, but the purpose of the document—admission to church membership—precluded creativity. The posthumous publication of her theological discussion and review is important because it indicates an early recognition of women's ability to contribute to religious subjects in an intellectual and educative manner.