Puritan Values in Today's Society

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Puritan Values and Modern Society The past doesn’t necessarily just disappear instead modern society adopts a “corrected” version of the past. Some of the values held in the past were just as important in the past as today. Critics of the Puritan literature believe that Puritan values are non-existent and irrelevant in today’s society, however if one looks around he or she may find small but influential remnants of Puritan values in their day-to-day life. Although the Puritans lived in another time period, both modern society and Puritans share similar beliefs and hold certain values that are akin to one another. For example, both Puritans and modern society value strict moral codes. To give further insight, today’s society have held unspoken …show more content…

Source A states that Smith wrote in 1st person to establish humility. Having humility is one of the many Puritan values, that people of modern society keep. For instance, when someone says that a person is beautiful, that person may say “I am not that pretty”, to express humility. This shows that both the modern society and the Puritans both stress blending in with society. Second, Source E states that Edwards believed only a person with good morals will reach heaven. In modern society, the purpose of following morals may not be to reach heaven, but rather to please or to be accepted in modern society. In a school environment, it is considered polite to listen to the teacher and pay attention to the lesson. In a case where a student fails to follow this ethic, the student gets punished and lose the respect of the teacher. To compare, Edwards explains that bad actions result in cruel punishment and ignorance from God. However, Edwards explains that one may redeem himself or herself if he or she surrender himself or herself to God. This can also occur in modern society. For example, if one writes a letter of apology, he or she may redeem himself or herself to the person he or she may have offended. Overall, people from the Puritan and today’s time period both fear the consequence of an immoral

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