“The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop” This book talks about the life of one of the most influential puritans John Winthrop. “The Puritan Dilemma was written by Edmund Morgan. Edmund Morgan was a History professor at Yale University from 1955 to 1986. Edmund Morgan wrote many other popular books such as “Birth of a republic, American slavery, American Freedom” and “Inventing The people, the rise of popular sovereignty in England.” This puritan dilemma was written for the intent of future history students reading and learning about John Winthrop and his influence on modern culture and religion.…
John Winthrop 's "City Upon A Hill", described the mission and vision to start a "New England", which became known as the United States of America. John Winthrop believed a perfect society could exist in a perfect city where everyone worshiped and worked together in harmony. He envisioned a community so closely woven together that everyone was equally important to the future of the city. A city where a purer form of Christianity would exist, which would provide a moral and religious show for the rest of the world to see. Quoting the New Testament, (Matthew 5:14) John Winthrop warned the people they would be totally exposed for the entire world to see, as a "city upon a hill."…
John Winthrop was one of the first settlers of the Massachusetts Bay plantation in 1630. He delivered a sermon called A Model of Christian Charity, while aboard the ship taking these Puritans to the New World “which outlined the principles by which the new colony should be run” (Mulford 237). He uses Bible scripture to reinforce his idea of how their community should be created. As the Bible is the foundation for these Puritans, it is important to see how he uses scripture to create their perfect plantation, or what he describes as a “city upon a hill” (Mulford 244). Winthrop seems to see his plantation’s colonists as the new chosen people and uses the Bible as proof of this. His vision for the community is that their plantation would be looked…
Everyone communicated freely, the settlers could voice their opinions openly and civil elections were held regularly. Further to this, considerable foundation of this settlement was love. This may sound a tad ‘corny’ but it made sense to these religious people that their ‘constitution’, their way of life should be built on the simple, most supporting foundation of all, that of love. Again, a recurring theme here is that this was something that never even entered the back of the minds of Sir Thomas Gates, Sir Thomas Dale or Lord Le War of Chesapeake. Massachusetts and New England was by far a more a ‘home’ than a ‘business’. Even though in both colonies people were there because they wanted to be, it is not hard to see which colony had progressed more for humanity than for economy. However, as a result of these fundamental changes and progressions in both colonies, populations grew, stability followed in the Chesapeake, and Massachusetts gradually grew further away from English Sovereignty under the “Cambridge agreement of local government” during the late 17th century[11]. Even though by this time the Virginia Company had been taken over by the monarch and it then became a Crown…
English attorney John Winthrop represented the new gentry that had flourished under the Tudor regime, but despite his privileged position Winthrop became increasingly disenchanted with the oppressive and corrupt Stuart monarchy. A time when Charles I, a true believer of the divine right of kings, decided to rule without parliamentary consent, and imprison Puritan parliamentary leaders in 1629. Winthrop penned A Model of Christian Charity in response to his disillusionment on his way to New England on the Arbella in 1630, joining the first large contingent of Puritans who left England in order to establish the godly commonwealth. Leaving behind his lay life as a modest gentleman, ahead lay the wilderness and a vision that English circumstances had frustrated.It can be read, as can so many Puritan statements as "restorationist," that is envisioning a social order in New England that would recapture the serenity of a imagined English past of a well-defined place for all, with clearly understood and easily fulfilled obligations within the social hierarchy. It laid out the model for transition as Winthrop saw it, seeking…
John Winthrop- He was one of the first founders and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He believed that the colony should be a community of people who all believe in God and worship Him. Anyone who was there to practice a different religion or have other beliefs about God/Heaven would be persecuted or banished. He stated that you could do anything, as long as what you did was for God. John Winthrop helped shape the government system and was a great political and religious leader.…
John Winthrop, an English Puritan leader, arrived in America in 1630 aboard the Arbella which was the largest of 11 ships. Soon to be future govenpr, Winthrop gave a sermon about the city on a hill, "We shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us." Winthrop was saying that all eyes would be on this soon to be new settlement in Massachusetts. His purpose was to state that if the new settlement worked together and allowed God to convert them and show them the way. Winthrop was hoping that the new settlement would become a perfect society and everyone be in good faith. church was a major part in the new society and soon became mandatory to attend. The believed that through good faith you could be converted. Although they…
Even those who are only passingly familiar with the horrific events that occurred during the colonization of the Americas know that the perpetrators betrayed the basic sense of compassion inherent in Christianity. However, many settlers claimed the “new” land in the name of God and asserted that they acted in perfect harmony with biblical ideals. With similar intentions, John Winthrop and his fellow settlers travelled to Massachusetts Bay to establish a colony based on Puritan ideals. While on the way to the new colony, Winthrop delivers a sermon entitled "A Model of Christian Charity" to dictate the ideals his Puritan colony would have to follow to please God. Indeed, Winthrop’s sermon suggests that his guidelines should be considered appropriate…
Throughout his oration, Winthrop apostrophizes their “enemies”, who he implies are powered by sin and will engulf the Puritans, should they commit a wrongdoing. By referring to what is effectively the embodiment of sin as a “tangible” enemy, he gives it weight and adds a layer of realness and danger to sin itself. He goes on to describe how breaking away from the community and giving into materialism and greed will cause God to desert them, further deterring them from committing sin, considering how God is the only thing tying them together. Winthrop does all he can to calm the nerves of his fellow shipmates, and ensure that they preserve their common link in…
It is important to highlight the fact that Winthrop's phrase a “city upon a hill” is a religious version. Religion has always played an important role in shaping American society and government. The intended audience of John Winthrop’s sermon given on the ship Arabella was the Puritans on their journey to their new home in North America. His purpose was to motivate the Puritans to become a model society based on their strong religious belief. This belief is still so important in the modern world because America still wants to be an example for the whole world. John Winthrop came to America to establish a religious state. Even 400 years later, Religion plays a very important role in modern America. National holidays based on the Christian calendar.…
Winthrop, John "A Model of Christian Charity." The Norton Anthology American Literature 7th Edition Volume A.158-147…
Governor Winthrop negotiated for the immigration of the Puritans from New England felt oppressed. Being an attorney he played d a significant role in the development of the Cambridge Agreement. As the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, John was very philanthropic and charitable. He donated his money and built houses to the numerous Puritan immigrants. During his tenure as the governor, he encouraged more of the Puritans to settle in Boston (Michael…
The most prominent of the Founding Fathers was John Winthrop. Winthrop was the first Governor of the Massachusetts Colony. He served his term from 1630 to 1634. He was one of the best educated of the Puritan company. Winthrop had great wisdom and strict integrity. He was very religious, and was very aware about all his choices, both in public and private life.…
There, in Winthrop's own words, is the Puritan dilemma of which Mr. Morgan speaks here, "the paradox that required a man to live in the world without being of it." Superficially Puritanism was only a belief that the Church of England should be purged of its hierarchy and of the traditions and ceremonies inherited from Rome. But those who had caught the fever knew that Puritanism demanded more of the individual than it did of the church. Once it took possession of a man, it was seldom shaken off and would shape--some people would say warp--his whole life. Puritanism was a power not to be denied. It did great things for England and America, but only by creating in the men and women it affected a tension which was at best painful and at worst unbearable. Puritanism required that a man devote his life to seeking salvation but told him he was helpless to do anything but evil. Puritanism required that he rest his whole hope in Christ but taught him that Christ would utterly reject him unless before he was born God had foreordained his salvation. Puritanism required that man refrain from sin but told him he would sin anyhow. Puritanism required that he reform the world in the image of God's holy kingdom but taught him that the evil of the world was incurable and inevitable. Puritanism required that he work to the best of his ability at whatever task was set before him and partake of the good things that God had filled the world with but told him he must enjoy his work and his pleasures only, as it were, absent-mindedly, with his attention fixed on God. Caught…
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