The Puritans Research Paper

     The Puritans were "Christians," in that they believed in Jesus Christ yet some may argue that they did not lead "Christian" lives. These fanatics seemed to obssess over a major tenet of their religion, that being "Pre Destination." That is, God Himself chose those destined for eternal salvation in the

However its creation of a single mindset is certainly questionable. For instance, the "other" of Puritan society is not represented. What is to be said of the dispossessed, the minorities of all types, the non-Puritans, and women in Miller's recounting of Puritan thought? Miller omits them from his account. One suspects that including their perspectives might have altered Miller's account. His concept of Puritanism was essentially the same one that was offered by the elites of early New England. Nonetheless this work, though intellectually demanding, represents a seminal statement in American, if not Christian, historiography and is worth of consideration for students of history, including American, Christian and religious

When looking into the history of the puritans one can find many things, however while reading “City Upon a Hill” and “The Divine Right to Occupy the land” one may then come up with the idea of the puritans being selfish.

The Puritans left no room in their lives for idleness of any kind, they strongly believed

Perhaps if they had not been so insecure about their methods of governing the colony, the Puritans wouldn’t have felt threatened by the

First and foremost, Puritanism was first formed in the late sixteenth century in the Church of England due to a majority of the citizens disagreeing with the church’s practice. Once James I became king of England in 1603, he rejected most of the Puritan’s proposals and this led to the Puritans becoming highly repressed (Kang 1). Unlike the pilgrims, Puritans did not wish to separate from the church. Essentially, the Puritans desired to purify their national church by eliminating every shred of Catholic

Pretty much all my life I had not cared to even bother to really study the puritans because I thought I had known everything I needed to know, which was that they were extremely boring, gave the death penalty for any behavior they particularly did not care for, and never did anything wrong. Although I still do not wish to become an expert on puritans I now have a very different look on them.

I have been convinced that the Puritans were a little too committed to their religion. The church taught people to suppress their emotions and opinions, to ignore individual differences, and taught anyone who stepped outside these boundaries risked being labeled and possessed by the devil. If you ask me, I would say that witches have their individual differences. Puritans said they ignore the individual differences. They also said they believe in witches.

The Puritans’ reliance on the bible is undisputable. They took the word of God literally and very strictly. If God had told them so blatantly as to how they should not let witches live, then so be it, the witches must die. The Puritans would do anything to make God’s word the truth so if God had it written that witches must not live then the Puritans, being the semi-bible-brainwashed beings they were would hold to that proclamation as if it were truth. Because of the long history of Puritans doing as God says is engraved in the core of their humanity that God is right and they must do whatever they can to please and uphold his wishes.

Puritans were English Protestants who were committed to “purifying” the Church of England. After being religiously persecuted in England, the Puritans fled to North America to start their new beginning. The Puritans maintained their Protestant beliefs with a patriarchal family. Their family roles differed from other colonists that settled in America. In my paper, I will describe the different roles that were established in the Puritan society. The Puritans society was based on an important organizational structure, the rearing of their children, the role of the women, and the dominance of men in their society. Puritans conformed to their social roles because it was deeply rooted to their religious

of the church taught that sexual relations should be avoided if possible and indulged in

In modern American mythology, the Puritans were characterized, by many Americans, as being nothing more than an extreme group of dour religious ascetics who abhorred anything that had to do with humor or sex. This image is fallacious. Furthermore, the Puritans were nothing more than another group of humans who defined their own world with their cultural norms, and values. To better understand the Puritans we have to expunge any mythology surrounding these people, and we have to study them on their own terms through their eyes if at all possible through the written record.

The Puritans in this 1600’s era painted men and women as a perfect imaged, well mannered, purified, and religious people. Goodman Brown

Marriage was a necessary institution in which both men and women could engage in sex acts without being socially persecuted as deviants or sinners. Despite Christianity’s wary views about sex, sex remained an unavoidable aspect of society. Celibacy was not an effective option because it conflicted with societal views on masculinity; society believed that men who vowed celibacy, and who were not graced with the gift of chastity, were denying their masculinity. According to Hendrix, “men could only be men if they fulfilled their natural sexual desires in the divinely blessed estate of marriage” (184). Marriage offered protection from sin. Without marriage, it was feared that men, and to a lesser extent women, would succumb to their sexual

Written works have been an integral part of all modern societies. This is even more so true with the Puritans, whose life was governed by their religious principles. It is crucial to realise to what degree religion is nested inside the Puritan mindset. Their faith was not simply common ideas they shared. For them their religion was the only thing that could be important, it was the basis of their values and communal structure. For example - they left on the journey to america so they could freely worship their religion and to show the rest of the world the moral high ground it represented. This was because of the definite way their faith was structured. They believed in the concept of