Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Puritans womans values
Essay on the puritans
Essay on the puritans
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Puritans womans values
The Puritans were English Protestants that came to America around 1630. John Winthrop led the Puritans to America in hopes of creating a pure Christian society separate from the authority of the State and the Church of England. They followed the beliefs of John Calvin who preached predestination. Under Calvinism each individual is born being chosen by God either for eternal salvation or damnation. The Puritans modeled their lives, both personal and within their communities, after the New Testament. They created strong, functional, and for some time successful societies in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the town of Boston. The Puritans taught mainly reading as writing and math skills were not felt to be important. Establishing the first schools for children, they also founded the first American College, Harvard. Additionally, the Puritans governed their communities democratically but only allowed male church members to vote. Puritanism was declared the official state religion and all other religious practices were banned. The Puritan religion was to be followed by community members through conversion or they were asked to leave. Gender equality was only considered within the meaning of being saved by God. Otherwise, women were inferior to men and must obey them in every aspect of their lives. Also, women were not allowed to lead prayer or worship meetings, nor could they be preachers or ministers. The Puritans lived faithfully by the words and laws of the Bible. They saw themselves to be like the Israelites being liberated by God from oppression and were chosen to fulfill an established, pure, Christian commonwealth. Differences between the Puritans and other religions were numerous. Although God was the central focu... ... middle of paper ... ...where people gathered to worship and fellowship whereas the Puritans saw Church as an actual structure or building. Since the Quakers believed so strongly in equality, there was so special treatment given or heeded to social classes or clergy. The Puritan’s well-educated clergy and higher societal members were given more respect and thought to be God’s chosen few. Unlike the Puritans, Quakers felt God could speak directly to any one person and not only through the words of the Bible. The Puritans came to the New World in hopes of establishing their religion as the only accepted faith. In my opinion, they became exactly like those that they fled from in England. Their closed minded views kept them from spreading the word of God and closed themselves off from saving others. Their persecution and intolerance of other religions bound their hands and communities.
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.
8.Puritans— ‘Followers' of Puritanism, a movement for reform in the Church of England that had a profound influence on the social, political, ethical, and theological ideas in England and America. In America the early New England settlements were Puritan in origin and theocratic in nature. The spirit of Puritanism long persisted there, and the idea of congregational democratic government was carried into the political life of the state as one source of modern democracy.
While residing in England, the Puritans and faithful Catholics faced prosecution, which led to their immigration to the New World. Most left England to avoid further harassment. Many groups and parishes applied for charters to America and, led by faithful ministers, the Pilgrims and Puritans made the long voyage to North America. Their religion became a unique element in the New England colonies by 1700. Before landing, the groups settled on agreements, signing laws and compacts to ensure a community effort towards survival when they came to shore, settling in New England. Their strong sense of community and faith in God led them to develop a hardworking society by year 1700, which Documents A and D express through the explanation of how the Pilgrims and Puritans plan to develop...
They believed they had the right to worship and govern themselves in whatever manner they pleased. Puritan freedom did not include religious tolerance or individualism. John Winthrop 's speech highlighted the concept of what Puritan freedom was. He believed in a civil society where through God 's path stability would be found. Socially, it can be summarized to two ideas, natural liberty vs. moral liberty. Natural liberty was said to be corrupt because it meant doing what you pleased, whereas moral liberty meant only doing what was right. One actions were reflected based upon their position in society. The higher up one was ranked social the more "moral" their actions were and vice versa for actions defined as
The Puritans were "Christians," in that they believed in Jesus Christ yet some may argue that they did not lead "Christian" lives. These fanatics seemed to obssess over a major tenet of their religion, that being "Pre Destination." That is, God Himself chose those destined for eternal salvation in the beginning of time, long before our conception and birth. This pre-ordained number is considerably miniscule, which, at times, the Puritans seemed to ignore.
The Puritans were mainly artisans and middling farmers by trade and in the wake of the reformation of the Church of England, left for the colonies to better devout themselves to God because they saw the Church of England as a corrupt institution where salvation was able to be bought and sold, and with absolutely no success in further reforming the Church, set off for the colonies. English Puritans believed in an all-powerful God who, at the moment of Creation, determined which humans would be saved and which would be damned (Goldfield 45).
The puritans were very religious. They wanted to show everyone what happens if you are good and believe in god and the heavens. If you do bad things you would be punished or be killed. If you do good things you can be hand chosen to go to heaven.
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.
In the essay, “The Godly Family of Colonial Massachusetts”, authors Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg explains how the Puritan family affected from longer social, constitutional, and economic community which the boundaries were flexible and comprehensive the family assigned to public association. Mintz and Kellogg concludes that the Puritans never thought of the family as an individual unit and separating from a surrounding community for them it was like a fundamental part of a larger political and social world. The Puritan families were fissionable in structure because of an amount of the population been spent part of their lives and other families homes, serving as apprentices, contracted laborers, or assistant also marriages rise out as one of their main events in their lives.
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...
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...
Puritans were very religious and strict on many things, like with government, what jobs were for which gender, and politics. A good quote that kind of explains a puritan life is this, "Puritan women, though they didn’t receive a college education, were generally literate and often well-read. The only respectable female vocation in Puritan America was managing a household. But that “household”
Some Puritans of this time did not like the sound of their ever nearing future and believed it was not in god’s will for these things to happen. Therefore they grouped together in order to make a new, pure model society in the area of New England in America. The Puritans simply did not agree to what was happening to their religion in their homeland so they set off for a fresh start.