Calvanism "We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us," the Puritan John Winthrop wrote. The Puritans departed for the New World due to their beliefs that the Church of England was hopelessly corrupt and no longer stood for their way of life. They felt that they could create an ideal Christian society in a New World, which would be a model for others to follow. Some even compared themselves to the Hebrews and held the notion that they were founding the New Israel. (Brow) As religious laws had governed the people of Israel, so did the church regulate New England society. The Puritans had some of the most interesting beliefs of the early religious groups. Founded by the beliefs of John Calvin, the Puritans adopted a religion called Calvinism. Consistent with his scripture-based reasoning, Calvin eloquently described how civil and papal governments were different, yet uniquely related. In his classic reformation style, Calvin symbolically compared Catholic to Protestant theology by framing his theocracy not on the church as the government, but rather he separated civil government from spiritual government into a divinely ordained, segregated Protestant theocracy. Intricately expressed and executed, Calvin’s doctrine is dripping with figurative language, suggesting that Calvin went to great lengths to insure that his dislike for the Catholic papacy would not go unnoticed. Calvin’s writings, teachings and beliefs were the platform for the Puritans (Polishook). "[The Puritans] sought an intellectual, moral, and spiritual "clean-up" of institutionalized Christianity. Their standard of purity was the Bible. The most comprehensive, but concise speaking of their ideology is the Westminster Conf... ... middle of paper ... ...). These and all his works were drawn from the fountain of Williams's highest principle: love of God, man, and truth. Bibliography: American Literature Part I, The Seventeenth Century. http://lonestar.texas.net/~mseifert/amlit1.html Brow, Martin. In Defense of the Puritans. Fire and Ice. 3 October 1999 Gatis, George Joseph. Puritan Jurisprudence: A Study in Substantive Biblical Law. Contra Mundum. 3 October 1999 Holy Bible (NKJV). Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nashville, 1980. Lauter,Paul, ed. The Heath anthology of American Literature. Third Edition, Volume One (Pages with copyright info missing from textbook). Polishook, Irwin H. Roger Williams, John Cotton, and Religious Freedom. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967 Westminster Confession of Faith, AD 164. 3 October 1999. Grace Presbyterian Church of Redding, California.
The puritans traveled from England on the Arabella in January of 1630 to escape to a place where they could instill their own religious and political values into their society; Stephen Foster writes about the puritans in the narrative entitled Puritanism and Democracy: A mixed Legacy. Stephen grants the puritans with creating a society based off of religious freedom and reformation of the English church. Their social constructs consisted of hierarchies and accepted inequality. The puritans are credited with laying the foundation to the democratic system of America along with early aspects of political and social constructs found in current day America.
In the 1700’s the Puritans left England for the fear of being persecuted. They moved to America for religious freedom. The Puritans lived from God’s laws. They did not depend as much on material things, and they had a simpler and conservative life. More than a hundred years later, the Puritan’s belief toward their church started to fade away. Some Puritans were not able to recognize their religion any longer, they felt that their congregations had grown too self-satisfied. They left their congregations, and their devotion to God gradually faded away. To rekindle the fervor that the early Puritans had, Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan ministers led a religious revival through New England. Edwards preached intense sermons that awakened his congregation to an awareness of their sins. With Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he persuades the Puritans to convert back to Puritanism, by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as, imagery, loaded diction, and a threatening and fearful tone.
A Puritan lawyer, John Winthrop, immigrated to New England because his views on religion were different from those in England. Even though Puritans are Protestants, Puritans tried to purify the English Church. In 1630 on board of the Arabella on the Atlantic Ocean on way to Massachusetts, he wrote “A Model of Christian Charity” which gave his views on what a society should be. ‘…the condition of mankind, [that] in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, other mean and in subjection….[Yet] we must knit together in this work as one man.’ (Doc. A). In this he is saying that men may be different but to make a new world work, they must work together. All through his speech he mentions God. For example, he opens his sermon with ‘God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence…’. This shows that in New England, the people were very religious.
John Calvin offers 5 tenets for the basic Puritan beliefs. Two tenets, unconditional election and perseverance of the saints, are explained in three different literature pieces. The tenets basically explain that God has selected a few people for salvation, the elect, and has given these elect people full power to interpret the will of God. William Bradford, Mary Rowlandson, and Anne Bradstreet relate themselves to a supreme hierarchy as being chosen, which is still evident in American culture today. William Bradford believed the Separatists and himself were put through tests and survived because they were chosen by God in his story, “Of Plymouth Plantation.”
Religion was the foundation of the early Colonial American Puritan writings. Many of the early settlements were comprised of men and women who fled Europe in the face of persecution to come to a new land and worship according to their own will. Their beliefs were stalwartly rooted in the fact that God should be involved with all facets of their lives and constantly worshiped. These Puritans writings focused on their religious foundations related to their exodus from Europe and religions role in their life on the new continent. Their literature helped to proselytize the message of God and focused on hard work and strict adherence to religious principles, thus avoiding eternal damnation. These main themes are evident in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mathers, and John Winthrop. This paper will explore the writings of these three men and how their religious views shaped their literary works, styles, and their historical and political views.
The American Puritans clearly understood that God's word applies to all of life. Their exemplary lives and faith, contrary to popular myths, are a highpoint of Christian thinking. Puritan legal history specifies some of their loyalties and compromises.
The church and Christian beliefs had a very large impact on the Puritan religion and lifestyle. According to discovery education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.”( Douglas 4). Puritan laws were intensively rigid and people in society were expected to follow a moral strict code. And because of Puritans and their strict moral codes, any act that was considered to go against this code was considered a sin and deserved to be punished. In Puritan theology, God h...
The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts left England because they thought the Church was obscuring God’s glory with its obsession of earthly things.
Puritans believed in strict religious dedications, by trying to follow the holy commandment. “The discipline of the family, in those days, was of a far more rigid kind than now.”(Hawthorne 9). They wanted to be considered the holiest of all people because they try to reflect a world of perfection in the sight of God. While they where trying to portray a holy life; however, they where also living a sinful life because they have been judgmental, slandering, uncompassionate, resentment, and forbearing, which are all sinful acts of the bible.
In 1534, King Henry VIII formally instigated the English Reformation. He therefore passed the Act of Supremacy, which outlawed the Catholic Church and made him “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England” (Roark, 68). Puritans were looking for a more Protestant church and received what they wanted. Along with it, came the King’s total control over the Church. This is what the Puritans didn’t want. Puritans believed that ordinary Christians, not a church hierarchy, should control religious life. They wanted a distinct line between government and the Church of England. Puritans also wanted to eliminate the customs of Catholic worship and instead focus on an individual’s relationship with God developed through Bible study, prayer, and introspection (Roark, 68).
The Puritans were Englishmen who chose to separate from the Church of England. Puritans believed that the Anglican Church or Church of England resembled the Roman Catholic Church too closely and was in dire need of reform. Furthermore, they were not free to follow their own religious beliefs without punishment. In the sixteenth century the Puritans settled in the New England area with the idea of regaining their principles of the Christi...
Winthrop had decided to leave England to found a godly community in the new world. Like most Puritans, Winthrop was extremely religious and subscribed fervently to the Puritan belief that the Anglican Church had to be cleansed of Catholic ritual. Winthrop was convinced that God was going to punish the English Puritans for its heresy against God. As the leader of the party heading for the new world he believed in creating a society based on a moral code that was rooted in the bible. Winthrop and the other Puritans hoped to establish in the new world a pure church that would offer a model for the churches in England, thus purifying the Anglican Church from within. "They sought homogeneity, not diversity, and believed that the good of the community outweighed protecting the rights of its individual members".
The Puritans didn't have all the luxuries we have today. They were told many things by preachers such as Jonathon Edwards, who lit a candle of fear in their minds. If I was alive to hear Edwards preach, I'd certainly have to question myself. He preached that God holds us in his hands and he can make or break us. If God decides it so, he will let us go and we will fall from his hands to nothing but Hell. Certainly no one wants to go to Hell. So, the Puritans tried to better their lives, and go by rules or "resolutions." They believed if they followed these resolutions, even though their fate was predetermined by God, they could live a life of good and maybe prove they are meant to go to Heaven.
Puritanism as a religion declined, both by diluting its core beliefs and by losing its members. This phenomenon was at work even in colonial days, at the religion’s height, because it contained destructive characteristics. It devolved into something barely recognizable in the course of a few generations. We can observe that the decline of Puritanism occurred because it bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction.
Calvinism is the theological system of John Calvin who exerted international influence on the development of the doctrine of the Protestant Reformation (Warfield, 2004). Calvin and his followers marked by strong emphasis on the sovereignty of God, the depravity of mankind, and the doctrine of predestination. This system was developed as a biblical Christianity. It has stirred countries such as Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, England and America. Calvinist theology spread rapidly, and became the basis for many protestant denominations. These included the Swiss Reformed Church, The Dutch Reformed Church, The English Puritans, The French Huguenots, The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, The Baptist Churches, and through them the Pentecostal Churches and Assemblies of God. Jansenism, a Catholic form of Calvinism, was condemned as heretical in 1653.