Comments on: The Puritan Enterprise

By: David Voelker

David Voelker — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:31:17 +0000

FINAL COMMENT

Many of you made note of the apparent paradoxes within American Puritanism, including their conflicted positions regarding religious liberty and freedom in general. Some historians of the Puritans have payed close attention to such tensions, arguing that the Puritan system engendered a bit too much tension and anxiety to sustain itself indefinitely.

Even though Calvinism and strict church discipline gradually faded, some of the ethos of Puritan culture certainly lived on to be influential in later American history. As Cullen points out, for instance, their belief in reform gave rise to a panoply of reform movements during the early 19th century, and the heirs of the Puritans led these movements.

By: Matt Micksch

Matt Micksch — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:31:08 +0000

I find it odd how the Puritans went off on their own, with the basis of creating their new world with their social and religious beliefs, eventhough their own ideology of life caused much stress and uncertainty amonst this attempt. I suppose the desire to live as they believed was the basis for the dream of creating the “new world.” This push to cross the Atlantic and start over on their own terms was the beginning structure of self freedom.

By: Alex Stevens

Alex Stevens — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:12:35 +0000

Paranoia. The term struck me as I was thinking about the Puritans dilemma revolving around their salvation. Any member of a Puritan community that was devoted to God, had to, at some point, and possibly quite often, thinking about whether or not they were among the elect. And then I thought about how being paranoid, or more precisely, having something negative to dwell on, seems to be a pattern in American history from the very beginning (I suppose this supposition could be stretched to include all of humanity’s history). As Erica pointed out, now we worry about terrorists. In the 1960s, there was communism and nuclear war, before that there was Facism, the Great War, the temporary dissolution of the Union. Since the moment a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant stepped foot in the Americas, it seems we’ve always had something negative on our minds.

By: Erica Spurgeon

Erica Spurgeon — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:45:18 +0000

When I began reading about the Puritans in our course packet and when I thought back on all the things I had learned about them before, aka the Salem Witch trials, I found it hard to believe where the were coming from. They were constantly scrutinizing others who did not follow their beliefs and they tried to make everyone like them and feared those who were not.

Then, after reading the comments that were posted, I realized and agreed with some of you when you say they maybe we aren’t living a life thats so different from the Puritans. I do not believe that our lives are as “centralized” around God and bible as they used to, but we do pursecute and fear others who are not like us.
I think that our society really needs to start taking a look at our past and learning from it because we have, through our entire history, been like this. From the Salem Witch trials to slavery and now to “terroists”. We really need to evaluate what a good life means and how we are supposed to achieve it.

By: Stephanie Bellile

Stephanie Bellile — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:29:36 +0000

I don’t know about all the rest of you, but I am hard finding the good in Puritanism. Yes, they were devoted to God, but it seemed that they were a group that was quick to judge people. Isn’t that part of the reason they left and now they are doing it to others? I think it is positive that they were such a tight knit community, but I still imagine them “sitting a a park bench” picking out “sinners” and “visible saints.”

By: Chris Gould

Chris Gould — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:03:24 +0000

I have a hard time really understanding the puritans. They fled their homeland because they were being pursecuted. Yet when they got to America and started their own way of life they pursecuted anyone with even the slightest disbelief. It was their way on no way, well to me isn’t that what they were trying to escape in their old lives. I do admire them for standing up for themselves and their beliefs but to me they were a bit over the top.

By: Eric Bansemar

Eric Bansemar — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:07:27 +0000

In regards to the Puritan beliefs and its effect on their society, I think that the Puritan belief was fundamentally flawed in that it had little ability to coalesce the inevitable disagreements that would arise among its members, especially in a dispersed community. If their communities remained small, then the chances of dissent were also small. But if the community grew, which it invariably did, then a community would engage in a fruitless endevor to preserve the status quo, i.e. expulsion from the community.

By: Richard Baker

Richard Baker — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:37:55 +0000

I disagree with Cullen’s assessment that Puritans would consider freedom (as we know it) to be “monstrous”. Instead, Puritanism promoted conformance to an individualism which “involved a willing surrender” or “choice to defer to Godly clerical and civil authorities” while obeying “just and equal laws” and thus a “communitarian vision” of people “who had a shared sense of what their lives were about” (p 22,23)..

Puritans did not fear “natural” freedom, although may have believed it could work evil, but rejected oppressive corruption in religion and embraced an ideology of freedom of religion (or freedom from religion).

Often one is condemned as unpatriotic if one expresses an opposing opinion toward the Patriot Act or the war in Iraq. Shortly after the attacks on America on Sept. 11 2001, President Bush declared war on terrorism stating, “We [America] will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them” adding, “Those that are not with us are against us”. It seems to me this same sort of connection is linked to a Puritan ideology or community of faith similar to it in which dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Huthinson were rejected.

By: William Schwartz

William Schwartz — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:07:23 +0000

I find it very impressive when families decide to move to a new world to seek religious freedom and a better life for themselves. Especially when it is a new country still wild and untamed for that time, to follow their dream. In one way the Puritans have done a lot for this country, they settle areas, farmed and started communities. On the other hand. Once in this country they forced there believes onto others. Doing the same thing too people, that was done to them in England. “Puritans not only made it difficult for the people who lived among them; they made it impossible for anyone living alongside them.” P.12

By: Adam Klug

Adam Klug — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:17:13 +0000

I am in complete agreance with Josh and Ben, as we explained in class the Puritans were just trying to live the good life. But when they become free and start to move away from law they in turn start to move away from what they left Europe for. Becuase I think they only way the Puritans think they can have that Good Life is to follow the law/Bible to the point.