Of Dr. Bracy Hill's 'Suffering For Their Consciences'

The book revealed New England’s religious attitudes and mentality, as well as their moral code and way of life. In colonial New England, people lived in towns where everyone knew each other and neighbors often relied on each other for trading goods and support in one’s time of need. This early American society found great importance in devotion to God and their Puritan faith, which they upheld over everything. It was widely believed at the time that falling into illness, just as Katherine Branch had was God’s way of punishing sinners. Godbeer states, “God might have inflicted the symptoms as punishment for sin; ideally this would prompt repentance and reformation as the inflicted person recalled the moral lapse that had provoked God’s anger” (17).

Respected Puritan minister, Jonathan Edwards in his Sermon, “Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God (1781), Elaborates on the negatives of being a repentant sinner. Edward’s goal is to inform people that sinning can be dangerous. He adopts a serious tone in order to establish a constant fear within Sinners and Non Sinners reading. Using the heavy caution within his readers let him establish a successful Sermon with the help of examples.

During the 1630’s, there was a group known as, the Puritans. The Puritans immigrated from England to America, for the sole purpose of religious freedom and their belief that the church of England needed reform. Puritan author’s, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards, conveyed their messages and beliefs in their writing . For these two authors, they were working around the same foundation, Puritanism, for the intended messages. Admittedly, there is a disconnection in belief between the two. Edward’s writings take Puritanism to the extreme whilst Bradstreet’s works show a more traditional view in the religion while staying true to it.

The role of religion in early American literature is extremely pervasive and it forms the obvious theme for most written work composed during the period. The highly religious nature of the early settlers and their

Many people believe that Christians played a great role in abolishing slavery. However, Douglass’ ideas about religion and its connection to slavery shine a light on the dark side of Christianity. Douglass’ account of his own life is a very eloquent first hand retelling of the suffering and cruelty that many slaves were going through. His account gives a detail of the ills that were committed against the slaves. The atrocities committed by the various different masters varied in intensity depending on the masters’ individual personality (Glancy 42). This first hand narrative gives us a glimpse in to the connection between religion (Christianity) and slavery.

Dickinson's bout with religious turmoil is quite evident in poem 1545; The Bible is an antique Volume-, in which she seems to be attacking the Puritan radicals such as Jonathan Edward. This poem gives almost a complete overview of the Bible, speaking of Eden, Satan, Judas, David, and also Sin. This poem lets us see why and also how this strict religious upbringing may have pushed her to become the `old spinster' as some may call her, or the woman with the disease of agoraphobia.

New England marks the beginnings of the Baptist struggle for “religious liberty.” Baptist names such as: Roger William, John Clark, and William Screven were significant figures that advanced the cause and displayed the trials and struggle of “religious liberty.” Roger William, (who was a

The nature of this document is taken from the notebooks of Nehemiah Wallington (1818-1654). “An extract of the passages of my life’ (Booy, D. (end) 2007), written in 1662. The extract is one of over fifty journals written over a twenty years period, of which seven originals remain. The purpose of this document is described in Grell (2016 p.81) as a means of private and later public record relating of Wallington’s reflections of his religious struggle for salvation as a sinner that believes he belongs to the “Elect”, those predestined for salvation. This autobiographical work provided historians with primary source of evidence of the thoughts and beliefs of a Puritan married man, and his religious responsibilities and relationship with his household.

To what extent were Baptists persecuted in Colonial America? Describe the contributions of Baptists in the fight for religious freedom. In what ways has this legacy continued today?

In the 1600’s the Puritans were the main religious group of that time period and they had very strong ideals on how religion and government should go together. Jonathan Edwards, who shared many of their ideals, preached a sermon called, “ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and it had a very big impact on the congregation. Nathaniel Hawthorne, although he was a writer in the 1800’s, he was fascinated with the Puritans and their lifestyles and wrote a short story called, “ The Minister’s Black Veil.” Both authors use specific details, tone, and imagery to convey their meaning and style, Edwards harsh and accusatory style was more effective than Hawthorne’s melancholy and mysterious style because Edwards helps the reader understand the effects sin can have in one’s life.

In the trial of Anne Hutchinson, we meet a well intentioned yet lost people described and labelled as the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company. These self governing Puritans, once a people who sought God to set them on their way, settled only to be found as a people who simply lost their way. This journey to lost began when first motivated by a desire for religious reform and separation from the liturgy, ceremonies and practices of the Church of England. Once they banned together, they set on their way and traveled in groups to the New World. With the Word of God as their ultimate authority and the desire for a personal relationship with God, these people landed in Boston in 1630 united to self govern the newly founded Massachussets Bay Colony. Unfortunatly, this self rule resulted in a government of intolerance, fear and a liturgy not much different from what was once found in the Church of England. A system designed to set apart outward morality, or sanctification, to strengthen the authority of the Church only worked to neglect the place of true piety purposed to strengthen the spiritual lives of the people it served.

The second article is titled, “The Great Awakening is a Welcome Religious Revival,” by an Assembly of Pastors of Churches in New England. The Assembly of Pastors describe the revival of religion, “the work of God.”7 Just like the ideas of Jonathan Edwards, the pastors concluded that the unusual behavior of the people of the New England colonies must be inspired from God. “With respect to numbers of those who have been under the impressions of the present day, we must declare there is good ground to conclude they are become real Christians.”8 These sheer number of people that were open to the Holy Spirit couldn’t be easily explained, and had the pastors confused not knowing what to really do. They did however did see a danger to this movement. Ideas that the devil could have a part in it, saying, “who can wonder, if as such a time as this, Satan should

Following the European Reformation the agency of various denominations in History decreases drastically. Many people never learn anything about the Anabaptists and Calvinists history after the year 1600. One group however that had a significant influence on the early development of the United States were the Puritans. During the mid to late 1600’s two crises arose in Puritan villages; first the Antinomian controversy and later the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

This article was created to inform its readers about the ideological conflict between the Puritans and Quakers. Pestana defends her assertion that, “The reaction of the Puritan

Fredrick Douglass and Henry Melville both critique Christianity as it was practiced in 19th-century America. Douglass illuminates the aspect of Christianity in relation to the way Christians also uphold the institution of slavery. He views it has ironic that those who claim the Christian faith also believe that there is nothing wrong in the practice of slavery. Douglass questions how one can be a true Christian and still not see that slavery in morally and religiously wrong. He ultimately critiques the way people practice the faith and still uphold slavery. Douglass goes as far to say that the slave master’s even become crueler when they find religion, because then they feel as if they can do no wrong. As Douglass states in relation to slavery and religion, “Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other – devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.”