Pilgrims and Puritans: Calvinism comes to 17 th Century America

Pilgrims and Puritans:Calvinism comes to 17th Century America Calvinism: the theological system of French/Swiss theologian and his followers, marked by strong emphasis on the sovereignty of God, the depravity of humankind, and the doctrine of predestination

Calvinist Groups • Pilgrims: Totally separated from the Anglican Church (the government-established, Protestant Church of England); generally poorer than Puritans. • 1. started in Yorkshire, England • 2. went to Holland • 3. sailed Mayflower to Plymouth

Calvinist Groups • Puritans: wished to reform the Anglican Church from within; followed the Pilgrims to New England and established Massachusetts Bay Colony

Calvinist Groups (cont.) • All came to New World to establish a theocracy – acolony with laws based on their religious beliefs

Calvinist Beliefs (Tenets) Calvinist Tenets – the basic religious beliefs of the Pilgrims/Puritans • Absolute sovereignty of God: God is all-powerful and controls everything • Predestination: an omniscient Deity knows from the beginning who will be “saved” – have eternal life in heaven

Tenets (cont.) • Providence: God intervenes directly in the world • Natural Depravity: Since Adam’s fall, all humans are born in sin and deserve damnation

Tenets (cont.) • . Election: Through God’s mercy, a few people are “saved,” but by the grace of God alone and not through their own behavior or works. One hoped one was one of the “Elect” (the term for those who were saved), and one lived the life of a saved person, constantly searching one’s soul for signs of “grace”; but there was really nothing one could do to change God’s plan for one’s immortal soul. (Note: This most extreme of Puritan/Calvinist doctrines was dropped by the early 1700s and was not a part of Edwards’ theology or of other later Calvinists.)

Tenets (cont.) • Evil is inner: Man needs reform of himself, rather than of institutions (such as schools, prisons, government, etc.) • God is revealed in the Bible (and nowhere else, such as in nature)

Decline of New England Theology • 1643: 11% church membership Preaching of the “Jeremiad” type of sermon: jeremiads bemoan their communities’ fall from grace, they also read the misfortunes and punishments that result from that fall as paradoxical proofs of God’s love and of the group’s status as his “chosen people.” • 1657: Half-Way Covenant • Secularized state

Decline of Puritanism (cont.) • 1677: Stoddardeanism: Very open Communion • Secularized church • 1691: Massachusetts a Royal Colony • No religious bans • 1692: Salem Witch Trials

Result of Decline • Religious Revival known as the Great Awakening • Itinerant preachers told people they could be saved by a “conversion experience,” or else be damned to eternity in Hell (different from old idea of Predestination)

Result of Decline • Rise of other religious groups such as Quakers • Rise of Deism (set of beliefs held by many Revolutionaries)

Pilgrims and Puritans: Calvinism comes to 17 th Century America