Puritanism And Its Influence On America In Colonial Period

In American history, Puritanism has always been an old topic with various opinions. But it's certain that, Puritanism, as the mainstream of the colonial culture, has greatly influenced the New England and then the whole country because of the power and prosperity of New England and puritans' emigration to the West. It is well known that it was an important factor in the course of forming of American culture and American spirit. So, Puritanism has become an unavoidable topic in the reach on the American spirit, democracy and American pragmatism. Puritanism emerged in England in the 16^th century. With the great emigration of puritans to North America from the 17^th century, Puritanism was applied to practice and at the same time was modified as it interacted with American circumstance. It guided the daily lives of the New Englanders and played a very important role in politics, economy, and culture in the colonial society. Employing the methods of history, religion and sociology, this thesis briefs the establishing of the puritan colonies, elaborates the characteristics of Puritanism which was based on Calvinism, exhibits the influences of Puritanism on the puritan society and analyses the reasons why Puritanism could have such a great influence on the society.Generally speaking, Puritanism has several important aspects, including thesovereign God, predestination, piety, covenant, and the Bible--the authority.Puritans believes that the God selected some and rejected some out of His own free will and nobody knows whether he or she is chosen. But God reach out to man with His grace. The God will make the chosen men converse and regenerate them through His vocation. The God will work in the spirits of the chosen people and make him believe His only Son, Jesus, through which a chosen one may be justified in front of the God, and may have eternal life. Man reaches out to God with his faith. Sanctification is the necessary result of the chosen men. In theory, the theory of predestination shows that the God completely control man, and man is incompetent for saving himself. But in practice, man takes hold of his own fate because the standard by which a man is saved lies in the fact that man has fulfilled his duty and has lived a life like the saints in the Bible. This unique character of the theory of predestination makes the puritans put great importance on the achievements in this mortal life. Another important aspect of the Puritanism is covenant. Puritans believe that the relationship between them and the God is based on covenant and their churches and their communities are organized by means of covenants. Because covenants rely on the voluntary submission of their subscribers, they provided the ideal mechanism for keeping order in society made up of comparative equals. In addition, the social ethics of Puritanism holds a positive attitude towards this mortal life and sufferings, which results in the puritans' positive attitude towards life.Puritanism has greatly influenced the politics of New England. Puritans organized both their churches and their communities by means of covenants. They believed that all believers were equal before the God and their church members are elected by all believers. So they elected all their officials in the government organization. Covenant was the relationship between the governor and the common people, which made both the officials and the people shoulder their respective responsibility. As a result, the puritans worked their way to a bicameral legislature and to a clear separation of legislative, judicial, and executive powers. Puritans managed to deal with the problem of the worldly government and the spiritual government by separating them and at the same time making they cooperate with each other. Puritans tried to strike a balance between right and responsibility. On freedom, puritans were convinced that everyone understood the words of the God only through his own faith and nobody had the right to oppress him. If anyone, with their authority, dares to interfere in people' freedom of accomplishing what is good and right, of being upright, others should protect it even at the price of their lives. So, revolting against officials who abused their authority has become one part of freedom. But, freedom was limited by obligation. Thus, puritans' pursuing for freedom, equality and revolting against those abusing their authority have become a character of the politics in America.Puritanism has also greatly influenced the economy in New England. The theory of vacation and theory of wealth in Puritanism have great impact on puritans' attitudes towards economy, making them accumulate wealth without guilt. Puritans believed that vocations, a standard by which the God judges man and proof which shows a man is elected by the God, are gifts given by the God. Consequently, puritans threw themselves into work actively, which provided a large number of worldly people for the development of the capitalistic economy in America. At the same time, theory of wealth in Puritanism told the puritans that getting rich showed that he has fulfilled his duty, which forced the puritans grasp every chance to get more. The theory of vacation and theory of wealth in Puritanism drove puritans into accumulating wealth, which made it possible for the economy in New England develop quickly in a short period of time and laid a solid foundation for the primitive accumulation of capital. Puritans' emphasizing on such moral conducts as economy, integrity, diligent played an important role in the forming of the spirit of capitalism.Puritanism has great influences on the education in New England . In the eyes of puritans, the Bible is authority. Everyone should understand the words of the God by reading the Bible himself. Thus, puritans attached great importance to education. And as a result, education in New England held a safe lead in the whole colony.There are four reasons why Puritanism has so great influence on the puritan colony. Firstly, puritans' spiritual motives when transplanting to America are the prerequisite to this great influence. The demographic character of the participants in the Great Migration shows that religious motives come first. Participants in the Great Migration more closely resembled the English population as a whole than did any other group of emigrants leaving for any other part of the New England. The social and economic background of the colonists suggested that they had much more to lose than to gain from migration. Many settlers might have anticipated an absolute decline in their economic standard of living. Emigrants to the New England were not like others who were very poor and tried to seek their fortunes in the cities. Instead of moving to big cities, they moved to the "a howling wilderness". Moreover, most migrants came from the relatively prosperous middling section. Secondly, the unique circumstance of North America is the objective condition. Because of the availability of farm land, the colonists had great freedom of moving. To some degree, the natural environment in North America strengthened their ideas of being the chosen people. Thirdly, stable society is the basic of this influence. In the whole process of establishing a stable society, the puritan leaders managed to weave Puritanism into the system of the Massachusetts Bay Company and try to ensure that the whole colony had the same religion. In addition, Multigenerational population structure of the emigrants and their traveling in family groups contributed to the stability. In addition, puritans' making some adjustment to the change of time is the key to its influence. Fourthly, the comparative weakness of other religious sects leads to the impact of Puritanism on New England.