English 231: American Literature
Instructor: K. Sherlock
PURITANISM and COLONIAL LITERATURE
POLITICAL
TENETS
PRINCIPLES
ORIGINAL Colonial Puritanism is a
DEPRAVITY: we are militant, biblically based
all born sinners (original Calvinistic Protestantism;
sin) its sects left England in order
to escape the repercussive
attacks they brought down
on themselves because of
their militantism.
LIMITED Puritanism called for a
ATONEMENT: we Complete Reformation
can't change the fact both of religious and of
that we are sinners secular life. In vituperatively
attacking the Anglican
establishment in Great
Britain, it called for a
disciplined, godly life, and
energetic evangelical
activities.
IRRESISTIBLE During the Civil Wars (of
GRACE: if we are England) the Puritan
chosen by God, it is "Roundheads" fought for the
beyond our earthly parliamentary cause and
control form ed the backbone of
steward forces during the
Commonwealth period. By
1662, however, Puritanism
had become a loose
confederation of various
Dissenting Sects.
PREDESTINATION: Emphasis was placed on
God has chosen his Self-Discipline,
elect before we are Individualism,
born Responsibility, Work;
Asceticism was also an
important influence upon the
values and attitudes of the
emerging middle classes.
In
LITERARY
VALUES WRITING
THEMES
Puritans turned to the Good Puritan writing--or, Short or long, the
Literal Authority of rather, correct writing-- Puritan life was a kind
the Christian Bible as encouraged the of romance or quest in
a code for living. significance of which Life Was Seen
Worshipping God. As A Test: failure
Colonial Puritan writing meant eternal
promoted these aims in damnation and
the face of New World hellfire; success
adversity and the meant posthumous
heathenism of paradise.
indigenous peoples.
In public and private The common motivation The World Is an
life, they displayed to take up the quill was Arena For the Battle
open ambition, hard to Warn Of the Spiritual between the forces of
work, and an intense Dangers that the soul God and the forces of
striving for Success. faced on Earth. Satan, a formidable
In advancing their own enemy with many
profit and their disguises.
community's well-
being, they were also
furthering God's plans.
To address the While the purpose of The theme of the
unpredictable nature Puritan literature was "Millennium," is
of life, they consoled very limited, it common in Puritan
themselves in the nonetheless had a literature, prophesying
belief that all things Varied Style in the return of Jesus to
and events are metaphysical poetry, Earth, an end to
Symbols With sermons, and religious human misery, and
Deeper Spiritual histories. the beginning of a
Meanings. 1,000 years of Peace
and Prosperity.
Wealth and status Relevant Puritan In prose literature and
were sought and Poets: Richard Baxter; sermons especially,
praised as Anne Bradstreet; William Puritans writers made
Reassurances Of Cowper; Ralph Erskine; frequent Use Of
Spiritual Health and John Newton; Edward Biblical Metaphors to
promises of eternal Taylor; Michael explain the Puritan
life. Wigglesworth. condition.
 English 231: American Literature
Instructor: K. Sherlock
In
POLITICAL LITERARY
TENETS VALUES WRITING
PRINCIPLES THEMES

COVENANT One of Puritanism's main Relevant Puritan
THEOLOGY: to political objectives is the Writers: Steven
reconcile the "Purification" Of Church Charnock; Ebenezer
contradictions of and Society, and in Erskine; Thomas
predestination and particular the remnants of Goodwin; William
limited atonement: 1) "corrupt" and "unscriptural" Gouge; Samuel
one's status as "saved" "papist" ritual and dogma -- Rutherford; Thomas
could never be known; which developed within the Sheperd; C.H.
2) one knew that the late sixteenth and early Spurgeon; Thomas
elect were good people seventeenth century Church Watson; Alexander
of England. Whyte; Samuel Willard;
John Winthrop.

David Cody, Associate Professor of English, Hartwick College, and George P. Landow,
Professor of English and Art History, Brown University

The Puritan movement was a broad trend toward a militant, biblically based Calvinistic Protestantism --
with emphasis upon the "purification" of church and society of the remnants of "corrupt" and "unscriptural"
"papist" ritual and dogma -- which developed within the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century
Church of England. Puritanism first emerged as an organized force in England among elements --
Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, for example -- dissatisfied with the compromises inherent in
the religious settlement carried out under Queen Elizabeth in 1559. They sought a complete reformation
both of religious and of secular life, and advocated, in consequence, the attacks upon the Anglican
establishment, the emphasis upon a disciplined, godly life, and the energetic evangelical activities that
characterized their movement. The Presbyterian wing of the Puritan party was eventually defeated in
Parliament, and after the suppression in 1583 of Nonconformist ministers, a minority moved to separate
from the church and sought refuge first in the Netherlands and later in New England.

By the 1660s Puritanism was firmly established amongst the gentry and the emerging middle classes of
southern and eastern England, and during the Civil Wars the Puritan "Roundheads" fought for the
parliamentary cause and formed the backbone of Cromwell's forces during the Commonwealth period.
After 1646, however, the Puritan emphasis upon individualism and the individual conscience made it
impossible for the movement to form a national Presbyterian church, and by 1662, when the Anglican
church was re-established, Puritanism had become a loose confederation of various Dissenting sects.
The growing pressure for religious toleration within Britain itself was to a considerable degree a legacy of
Puritanism, and its emphasis on self-discipline, individualism, responsibility, work, and asceticism was
also an important influence upon the values and attitudes of the emerging middle classes.