Puritan Life

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Puritan life is probably one of the biggest paradoxes known to man theoretically. In practice is doesn’t seem like such an absurd notion. There are certain things that may lead someone into confusion over the way that Puritan life was conducted. One of these things is the object of holiness. This means that only certain members are allowed into the Puritan life after proving themselves holy. Another object that may cause confusion is the idea of enjoying oneself in Puritan life. Recreation did occur in Puritan life, but the definition of Puritan recreation is differently defined. One more object of confusion in Puritan life is the type of Puritan in which you are stereotyped into depending of your actions regarding your religion. Although this might sound complicated it is not as intricate as it is written. For Puritan’s this was a way of life. This tells us that, in practice, all of these social theories are probably more plausible than they sound. Winthrop did encounter all of these problems in his journey from England to Massachusetts, and them encountered some of these while he was in control of the society there.

Holiness. It means, for the puritans, that you are one of the chosen by god. Although it does not guarantee you entrance into God’s holy kingdom, it does mean that at least while you are on Earth, God has chosen you to be one of his people. This is one of the burdens that fell upon Winthrop. Who was holy enough to become part of society? He knew that he was holy because, he had come this far by living a completely Puritan life, and he had already become part of the church, which meant that he had passed all of the tests required to prove your holiness. But this did not apply to Massachusetts that was supposed to be a new land governed completely under the laws of God. In this case certain new tests had to be made in order to prove your holiness, but who really had the authority to, and who would decide when someone was worthy. This trouble Winthrop because the only reference he had for this task was the Bible. And although that was the law of the land, it did not specify who was wholly and who wasn’t. Therefore Winthrop decided to let participate, in government, those who their individual churches had deemed as a part of Puritan society.

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