B. Vogt
Puritanism
Ø Valued plainness, especially in religion
Ø Wanted to return to a simpler form of worship without religion’s rituals, pomp, and ceremony
Ø Met in plain, white wooden “meeting houses”
Puritanism was a way of life that lasted for about a century; as new generations were born and small villages of New England grew into big cities, factories and businesses began to flourish, their strong religious beliefs died in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of materialism. However, the Puritan Ideals of hard work, self-sacrifice, and the belief in God still persists in American today, Their belief that they were a “chosen” people destined by God to bring Christianity to the wilderness of the New World translated later into Manifest Destiny (U.S. expansion across North America) and the American Dream.
Puritan Beliefs:
ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD: God is all powerful, and he influences all of man’s life.
ORIGINAL SIN AND TOTAL DEPRAVITY: Because of Adam and Eve’s fall in Eden, man is born evil.
PREDESTINATION AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE ELECT: If a person is chosen by God to be one of the Elect, he receives salvation or “grace”. Since a person cannot tell if or when he would be chosen, he must live a good, moral life and search his heart for signs of God’s grace.
BELIEF IN SATAN: Just as God can elect people to be saved, so the Devil can select certain people to bewitch. The Devil is real, active enemy of mankind who wages continual war to destroy God’s creations.
BELIEF IN THEOCRACY: leaders govern by church laws; non-church members can’t vote or hold office; those who don’t attend church can be punished, excommunicated, lose all property and rights; those who couldn’t recite the church catechism (Bible, commandments, laws) were suspected as being agents of the Devil.
TWO PURITAN THEOLOGIES:
Martin Luther: based his ideas on New Testament = loving God
John Calvin: based his ideas on the Old Testament = wrathful God. New England Puritans followed Calvinism.