The Puritans

A detailed Summary of The Puritans

The Puritans dream was to create a model society for the rest of Christendom. Their goal was to make a society in every way connected to god. Every aspect of their lives, from political status and employment to even recreation and dress, was taken into account in order to live a more pious life.

But to really understand what the aspirations of the puritans were, we must first understand their beliefs. "Their goal was absolute purity; to live with out sin in a sinful world was to them the supreme challenge in life. They were derisively called Puritans because they sought to purify the Church of England of the popish and antichristian stuff with which they believed the simplicity of the primitive Christian church had been encrusted." The Puritans believed that man's only purpose in life was "to glorify God on earth and, if he were especially fortunate, to continue the good work in Heaven."

For the puritans, to glorify god meant keeping him in mind at all times, working to the best of their ability at whatever job god had fated them to do, and following a strict moral code based on the bible. "Every act and thought was either a glorification of god or its opposite." Thus, leading a pious life in the form of working hard, praying

The Puritans enacted many laws to keep the non-Puritans living religious lives. They created an official whose only job was to check up on ten families daily to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening and to make sure everyone who was able went to church. Their idea was that everybody, even if they weren't part of the church, should be very religious. Therefore they created their laws with underlying principles based on the Old Testament. For example, they believed that if you are not working with the church, you are working against it. This comes up in many trials where anyone not entirely agreeing with the church was either whipped, banished, or both.

They dreamed of a society where everybody followed the laws and lived a peaceful, god-fearing existence. To make this dream realizable, the Puritans created severe penalties for breaking the laws. These ranged from whipping and being thrown in the stocks for minor offenses, to banishment and death by hanging for serious ones. To be a good Puritan one had to work hard all the time and never be idle. Idleness was also a grave infraction that carried with it the penalty of torturous physical punishment. The Puritans arranged a comprehensive list of "good and wholesome laws" that prohibited "carnal delights," such as attending plays, dancing around a maypole, bowling on the green, playing shuffleboard, quoits, dice, and cards. Even the "wearing by men of long hair" was enough to bring them under suspicion of being subversive to the church. There seemed no end to the ways a Puritan could sin: drinking in taverns, sexual indulgence, swearing, falling asleep in church, Sabbath-breaki!

The Puritans dreamed of creating the perfect god fearing society as a model for the entire Christian world. They did everything in their power to keep this dream alive. They created strict laws, and enforced them vigorously all in the name of God. But it was destined to fail because of the growing political liberty in England and the numerous advancements during the age of enlightenment, which eventually came into direct conflict with established Puritan beliefs.

ng, overdressing, etc; and in New England sinning was the same as breaking the law. The next question is to what extent were the aspirations of the Puritans fulfilled during the seventeenth century. The answer is that they succeeded, and then failed. At first, the Puritans came very close to

Some common words found in the essay are:
Church England, Covenant Grace, England Puritans, Anne Hutchinson, Williams Hutchinson, , Massachusetts Bay, City Hill, Narragansett Indians, Consequently Puritans, pious life, perfect god fearing, england puritans, god fearing, god destined, fearing society, perfect god, glorify god, massachusetts bay, puritans believed, model rest, god fearing society,

Approximate Word count = 1623
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History