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Puritans and Puritanism. Puritan Settlers. Puritan Legacy. Their effects are left on our culture today, just like the effects of John Smith and the other explorers. Theirs are more subtle though, not as easily identifiable as the desire for the American Dream
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Puritan Legacy • Their effects are left on our culture today, just like the effects of John Smith and the other explorers
Theirs are more subtle though, not as easily identifiable as the desire for the American Dream • Their influence went “underground” after the American Revolution
Reasons for their Arrival • Puritans were religious zealots and fundamentalists • They believed the English church was too “Catholic”
They came to the New World to test their moral resolve At first they didn’t intend for this to be apermanent settlement
They thought of themselves as the Israelites in the desert Puritan motifs & philosophies include: “Life is a journey”, a “moral superiority”
“A Chosen People” As the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founder of Boston said they came to build a “City upon a Hill”
Their original intent was to return to Europe and purify the church of England • A strict religious, military like group enforcing an impossible moral code
Beliefs and Practices • Society centered on strict interpretation and understanding of the Bible
Calvinist Doctrine - The Five Tenets • T.U.L.I.P • Total Depravity - You are completely sinful. God is everything, you are nothing. World is indisharmony because of Adam & Eve
Unconditional Election - God is under no obligation to save you but He saves or elects whomever He wants.
Not based on any good works. It doesn’tmatter what you do. God has to do it, and no one knows if he or she is saved or not - only God knows
Limited Atonement - Christ didn’t die for everyone but for a few, the elect • If Christ hadn’t died no one would be saved
Irresistible Grace - God gives his grace freely. Grace can’t be earned or resisted - saving, transforming change of God. Offers forgiveness of sins, newness of life
Perseverance of the Saints - Those that God has chosen are able to have full power and live uprightly. No one can refute this power
Followed these teachings of John Calvin • Great sense of pre-determinism • Look for outer signs to reveal if someone is saved
The inner signs became faith, virtue, morals and hard work • The outer sign became more powerful though in a way
Wealth: became a sign of being saved • This lead the way to American materialism along with the influences of explorers like John Smith • They were aware of the failures at Jamestown though
They ran a strict government and enforced laws because Jamestown had almost failed and they didn’t want that to happen to them.
Felt watched and observed by God at all times • Plain Style - No graven images. Destroyed all images such as stained glass windows
Only grave stones had any art work on them • Death is focused upon • Death held the foreground of social life • Funerals were large gatherings, and the election of a new clergy/leadership
Reject the things of this world. Focus on something beyond • They did become materialistic though after being here for some time
Everything is a part of God’s Providence • Nature and beauty are rejected - house is designed to keep out nature.
House separates the family from nature • Nature is the heathen wilderness where savages and the Devil reside • Only other artwork was portraits
Portraits reminded people of those who’d died and the transience of life • Portraits had a sign of wealth - $ was a sign of God’s favor
Art applied to basic needs, it had to have a function like on a quilt or on furniture. • No art for art’s sake, for beauty or pleasure
Creative energy was despised and feared • They had a rigid discipline to keep the society going - art was seen as a waste of time.
Still dealing with this today in the form of censorship • The U.S. has the largest gross national product but we don’t contribute that much to the arts
No respect or emphasis on the individual or non-conformist • Art was seen as a competition to religion • Fear of Nature and of the Flesh - particularly women
Any sexual transgression was the worst of sins • Women had a bad place • Male dominated society • Adam and Eve story taken literally - blame Eve
They took moral realities and tried to reduce them to sexual transgressions • Greed and Hypocrisy weren’t as serious • Dualistic sense of reality -
Everything having to do with the body/physicality is bad. The spirit is all that is good • Sexual matters were terrifying and shameful
Anti-intellectualism • Knowledgeable only in the Bible and theological issues • Didn’t idealize the world; they saw nature as the heathen wilderness.
They didn’t come for a Utopia; they were too realistic to see America as a new Eden • They didn’t see Mother Nature as a moral force
They had a very Old Testament mindset • Their God was a wrathful God, vengeful God. • Didn’t look at God’s love and redemption in the N.T
They tried to isolate evil and personify it and destroy it • A lot of insecurity and paranoia - fear of the unknown and undiscovered
They replace this fear with a superficial appearance of strength and stability • Make evil be something other than us, something or someone else
Can be seen today in the fears and paranoia of post 9/11. Great mistrust and ill-feelings and misunderstanding of people from the Middle East and towards Muslims
Very little understanding of human behavior, human wrath or human desire • No separation of church and state - a Theocracy
For the Puritans life was undeniably tragic. • They saw the darkest side of the Universe and human nature
“Celebration” not a big word in their vocabulary • It was illegal to dance, celebrate Christmas, play certain games or to speak out in church
