In the provocative article, Were the Puritans Puritanical?, Carl Degler seeks to clarify the many misconceptions surrounding the Puritan lifestyle. He reveals his opinions on this seventeenth century living style, arguing that the Puritans were not dull and ultra-conservative, but rather enjoyed things in moderation. They had pleasures, but not in excess. The Puritans could engage in many pleasurable and leisurely activities so long as they did not lead to sin. According to the article, the Puritans believed that too much of anything is a sin. Degler writes about the misconceptions of Puritan dress, saying that it was the “opposite of severe”, and describing it as rather the English Renaissance style. Not all members of Puritan society …show more content…
Another misconception that Degler sought to clarify was the presence – or lack – of music in daily Puritan life. He argued that it was true that Puritans removed organs from their churches, however, it was not music itself that they were averse to, but more the presence of music in the church. The Puritans believed that the worship of God was to be free of ritualistic practices, so they eliminated music within the church. However, that did not stop them from enjoying music outside the walls of the church. Degler used the same argument for the enjoyment of art in Puritan life. They had no significant objections to art, but that could be due to the fact that there was so little of it present in the seventeenth century. Degler’s last argument was made on sexual activity. While the Puritans did engage in sexual relations, it was not until after marriage that they did so, and even then, Puritan marriages were based much more off of love and companionship than sexual activity. Puritans were not celibate, however they did not stress sexual relations as much as they stressed love and
One of the most cherished doctrines of the Puritans is the well-known weaned affections. From a Puritan perspective, people must learn to wean their way off of “Earthy possessions” in order to dedicate their attention on God. Puritans were preoccupied with the belief that if people invested themselves in Earthy distraction including relationships, they would struggle to find everlasting-spiritual beauty. In both “The Author to Her Book” by Anne Bradstreet as well as the “Prologue” by Edward Taylor, the authors portray themselves in a struggle to be weaned from their affections.
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.
As America slowly began molding into the creases of different values and cultures, so did its literature. One trait that had always been securing itself within the lines of these literary texts was the protagonists’ naivety. Theses characters typically established an intention to do good things, but eventually fail due to tumbling upon tempting obstacles and falling into the trance of distractions. An example of this situation occurred long ago during the 16th and 17th century. A cult of English Protestants known as Puritans aimed to “purify” the Church of England by excreting all evidence of its descent in the Roman Catholic Church. The Puritans enforced strict religious practices upon its believers and regarded all pleasure and luxury as wicked or sacrilegious. Although their “holy” cond...
Edmund S. Morgan's The Puritan Family displays a multifaceted view of the various aspects of Puritan life. In this book, we, the audience, see into the Puritans' lives and are thereby forced to reflect upon our own. The Puritan beliefs and practices were complicated and rather "snobbish," as seen in The Puritan Family.
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.
The Puritan religion had a surprisingly strong claim for the men and women who are hypersensitive to the disturbing forces that transform England in the middle of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Marriages remain far longer in their lives also the Puritan’s family in the beginning of the seventeenth century New England was more stabilized, adapted, and connected unit also the young Puritans was taught in mixture of constructive parts and the girls was taught as a housewife just like their mothers their lives were complicated.
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).
Puritans are generally viewed as religious extremists. Their religious beliefs were extended to all areas of life, and were zealously enforced. This is true for the most part, especially the way they conducted themselves publicly. They believed in public piety to the extent that once, “a young married couple was fined twenty shillings for the crime of kissing in public” (Kennedy, 45). This couple was already married, so one can imagine the people would come to feel that rules like this served no purpose. As Albion’s Seed reads, Puritans “believed that costume should not be a form of sensual display” (140). Their finickiness even included their refrain from wearing the color black because it was too stylish for anyone but the elect. It would be difficult to see how this relates to any scriptural laws of God, therefore, one can imagine how people would grow tired of such pointless restrictions on every trivial choice and action.
An eerie quiet filled the neighborhood as families walked side by side, focused, emotionless, affectionless, toward their silent destination. They sat, face forward, eyes forward, alert, silent and anxious, but very emotionless. Sermons filled the void caused by the silence, and every attendee of the church service that morning became engulfed in the religion they learned to value over anything else. Everything depended on their attendance, and those who did not show in silence faced brutal but inevitable consequences. The life of Puritans in 1692 Salem Villages was very different than a life led by an individual in present day. Values were placed heavily upon religion, and lifestyles were based around the church. After coming to the New World to become free from oppression in England, many Puritans found themselves faced with more challenges, moral and beyond, that heavily influenced their lifestyles from childhood to adulthood.
Hutson, Matthew. Still Puritan After All These Years. The New York Times, 2 Aug. 2012. WEB. 16 May 2014.
The Puritans lifestyle was like the symbol for perfection because they followed the strict and harsh rules the church and society had put on them to live the holy and “pure” life to please God, as a result, Puritans were always concerned in ac...
As it was considered sinful to read literature that was not Puritan or in relation to the Bible and the divinity of God, many Puritans did not value many types of literature as a whole. As James Russell Lowell noted in “The Bigelow Papers”, aside from the Bible, many Puritans spent most of their time devoted to pertinent matters. However, the works of Anne Bradstreet, William Bradford, and Jonathan Edwards exhibited many common ideals and values shared throughout Puritan society. Despite the fact that Puritan religious beliefs, traditions, values, and ideals vary strongly from those of present-day America, it remains eminent that Puritan beliefs were the cornerstones of common religious practices and beliefs of today.
Even though Edwards agrees with the Puritan orthodoxy that good works could not lead to salvation, he did not accept that people were fated to salvation or damnation regardless of how they lived their lives. Puritan orthodoxy says that your fate is predetermined, and no matter what you do you can't change where you are going. If you are going to heaven that won't change, and if you are going to hell that won't change either! So why not just live your life and do whatever you want? Edwards did not accept the idea of predetermined fate but, instead said that your fate could only be determined through God. If you believe in Christ and have faith this is they way to heaven! He even mentions that it's never too late to turn from your evil ways no