An Analysis Of The Puritanism In Early New England Colonies: 1630-1691

Puritanism originated from the Reformation Movement of England in the 16th century, and between the 1620s and 1630s, the England puritans began to migrate to North America. They mainly concentrated in northern New England, thus the region had been named as"the Puritan Colonies". This thesis aims to analysis the puritanism of the early New England colonies (1630-1691) from the perspective of intellectual history, including its religious views, ethical views and political views.The introduction part mainly introduces the foundation on which the topic is chosen, present research situations at home and abroad, research methods and purpose.The first part of the thesis emphasizes the covenant thought of puritans, including its origin, expression, influence and so on. The main intention is to clarify the covenant core thought which not only made the puritanism distinguish from other religions, but also formulated the social relations of the colonies, and brought about profound effects on the afterworld.The second part mainly expounds the ethical views, including religion liberty, calling, voting and so on. The puritans achieved religion liberty in the colonies, accorded great importance to hardworking and voting rights. In their mind, plentiful wealth could glorify God and prove their status. At the same time, they struggled actively for their voting right, they got relatively extensive rights.The third part focuses on the political views, comprising the transformation of the administrations of the colonies, local town autonomy and the establishment of regime. At the beginning, the puritan leaders insisted that the God had the great power of governing. Along with the town's autonomy became increasingly mature, they required to share more rights from the colony governments, and their conflicts promoted the development of the democratic politics.The conclusion part sums up the whole paper, indicating that puritanism had extremely significant status in New England colonies. Along with the development of the society, the meaning of the puritanism constantly changed, but its thought and model had been inherited and expanded.