The Puritans

1
The Puritans

• Albert Lowe
• Michael Kim
• Kristin Hung
• Rona Maglian
• Period 7
• January 17, 2008

2
Puritan Philosophy

• came to the New World to escape religious
  persecution in the early 1600s
• We shall be as a city upon a hill.
• -- John Winthrop
• believed that the Bible was God's true law, and
  that it provided a plan for living.
• believed in predestination.
• based their life on fear of God.
• Life was a serious business and hellfire was
  real-a hell where sinners shriveled and shrieked
  in vain for divine mercy.

3
What are their values?

• emphasis on private study of the Bible
• desire to see education and enlightenment for the
  masses
• the priesthood of all believers
• simplicity in worship, the exclusion of
  vestments, images, candles, etc.
• Did not celebrate traditional holidays
• Believed the Sabbath was still obligatory for
  Christians
• Protestant ethic serious commitments to work
  and engagement in worldly pursuits.
• Simple pleasures.

4
How do they define truth?
Thou didst drive out the heathen before them
but this course of warring against others and
driving them out without provocation depends upon
special commissions from God, or else is not
imitable. ----- John Winthrop

• Bible not a guarantee conversion Puritan duty
  to search out scriptural truth for him or her
  self.
• believed that honesty was the best policy, a
  religious principle from came from God.
• Truth extends from honesty, good faith, and
  sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or
  reality in particular.
• - was defined through the Bible.

5
What is their view of God?

• "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
  wisdom."
• (The Bible)
• God is unmerciful and strict.
• Gods supreme authority led them to seek both
  individual and corporate conformance to the
  teaching of the Bible, and it led them to pursue
  both moral purity down to the smallest detail as
  well as ecclesiastical purity to the highest
  level.

6
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

• I will tread them in mine anger, and will
  trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be
  sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all
  my raiment
• This piece of writing portrays the Puritan belief
  that God is an unforgiving and unmerciful Lord
  who shows no pity.
• If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far
  from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing
  you the least regard or favour, that instead of
  that, he will only tread you under foot.

7
Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Written after Puritan times, but Hawthorne was a
  descendant of the earliest Puritans
• Showed the intolerance of nonconforming ideas and
  lifestyles
• Puritan society used as analogue for humankind
• Hester was linked to Anne Hutchinson and her
  persecution

8

• Puritans Historical Connections
• Puritan theology is a version of Calvinism.
• English Revolution demanded the abolition of
  bishops in the Church of England, freedom from
  direction and control by civil authority.
• The Puritans had a desire for self-improvement
  (How to Win Friends and Influence People). This
  involves recording all faults, whether in a
  revealing intimate diary (My Secret Life) or the
  Watergate tapes.
• First Great Awakening, which led to the American
  Revolution.
• The Salem Witch Trials

9

• Puritan Legacy Lives On
• everyone was equal in the eyes of God today the
  idea is more secular all citizens are equal.
• the church government separate from civil
  government. Today, we believe in the separation
  of the church and the state.
• Like, the Puritans, we stand as a religious
  nation.
• Also like the Puritans, we are very charitable
  people, taking care of the less fortunate.
• the importance of education.
• idealism we believe that we can improve our
  lives as well as our children and society as a
  whole if we work hard.
• Although the Puritans are no longer a dominant
  society, their legacies live on. Like Puritans,
  Americans may be exclusivist, intolerant, and may
  have an arrogant aura of superiority. However, it
  is to the Puritans to whom we owe our great
  nation, for they worked hard to build a
• godly and charitable society.

10
John Winthrop

• First leader of Massachusetts Bay Company
• Led one of the first most successful colonies in
  the Americas
• Influenced other surrounding colonies to follow
  Puritan way
• "A Model of Christian Charity (sermon) moral
  conducts and how God, although a benevolent God,
  is also a condemning and vindictive.
• Winthrop was also a strong believer of social
  ethics.
• The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if
  we deal falsely with our God in this work we have
  undertaken, and so cause us to withdraw His
  present help from us, we shall be made a story
  and a byword through the world.
• Most famous for his City Upon A Hill Speech
  movement of Puritans to New World was from a pact
  with God
• Least radical out of the Puritans
• Believed in equality for men and women
• Ironically, not a firm believer of democracy

11
Anne Hutchinson

• Extremely outspoken about controversial views
  because she had great faith her beliefs were good
  and true
• Freely interpreted Bible, termed it her divine
  inspiration.
• Generally adhered to principles of Puritan
  orthodoxy
• yet held ahead-of-her-times notions about
  equality and rights of women (in contradiction to
  both Puritan and prevailing cultural attitudes)
• Faith alone was necessary to salvation.
• Accused of blasphemy and lewd and lascivious
  conduct, found guilty and was excommunicated
  from Puritan Church
• You have no power over my body, neither can
  you do me any harm. I fear none but the great
  Jehovah, which hath foretold me of these things,
  and I do verily believe that he will deliver me
  out of your hands. (during trial)
• banished from the colony "as being a woman not
  fit for our society."
• Treated Native Americans with respect and got
  along well with them
• Accidentally killed by them because they believed
  her to be Dutch
• Helped found the state of Rhode Island
• Religious tolerance

12
The American Dream According to the Puritans

• The American Dream is to create a model society
  that reflects pure moral qualities.
• Equal ability to speak to God
• Persuaded to move to colonies because new World
  perceived as the land of plenty, the land of
  opportunity, and the land of destiny.
• Education is the key to success and prosperity.

13
Connection to the American Dream

• Todays American dream become something out of
  nothing. Prosperity ability and hard work. The
  puritans believed in working hard to not waste
  Gods time. It was a sin to loaf around.
• Given that people generally came to this country
  because of intolerable conditions in Europe, this
  implies that they found life here, whether in the
  teeming slums of New York or the freezing
  prairies of North Dakota, even worse (Locke,
  2002). 
• Seeking the perfect life.

14
Works Cited

• Bender, David. Puritanism. San Diego Greenhaven
  Press, 1994.
• Collier, Christopher. Pilgrims and Puritans. New
  York Benchmark Books, 1998.
• Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New
  York Signet Classic, 1959.
• Kizer, Kay. "Puritans." ND 14 JAN 2008
  lthttp//www.nd.edu/rbarger/www7/puritans.htmlgt.
• McMahon, Chris. Puritans Mind. 1998. 14 Jan 2008
  lthttp//www.apuritansmind.com/MainPage.htmgt.
• Rogers, John. "John Winthrop First Governor of
  Massachusetts." Forerunner 14 JAN 2008
• lthttp//forerunner.com/forerunner/X0526_Bi
  os-
  _John_Winthrop.htmlgt.
• Stille, Darlene. Anne Hutchinson Puritan
  Protester. Minnesota Compass Point Books, 2006.