The Puritans Puritanism

What is Puritanism? The designation “Puritan” is often incorrectly used, notably based on assumption that hedonism and Puritanism are antonyms: the word was used to characterize the Protestant group as extremists. Puritanism has a historical importance over a period of a century and general views must contend with the way it changed character and emphasis almost decade by decade over that time. Puritanism was fundamentally anti-Catholic. In modern usage, the word puritan is often used to describe someone who has strict views on sexual morality, disapproves of recreation, and wishes to impose these beliefs on others. This popular image is more accurate as a description of Puritans in colonial America, who were among the most radical Puritans and whose social experiment took the form of a theocracy.

The Puritans were a group of people who grew discontent in the church of England and worked towards religious, moral and social reform. The Puritans were one branch of dissenters who decided that the Church of England was beyond reform. They felt that the Church was still too close to Catholicism and needed to be reformed further. There were substantial works of theology written by Puritans, such as the Medulla Theologiae of William Ames, but there is no theology that is distinctive of Puritans. "Puritan theology" makes sense only as certain parts of Reformed theology, i.e. the legacy in theological terms of Calvinism, as it was expounded by Puritan preachers (often known as lecturers), and applied in the lives of Puritans. Puritans still opposed much of the Catholic summation in the Church of England. Who were the Puritans?

Puritans who felt that the Reformation of the Church of England was not to their satisfaction but who remained within the Church of England advocating further reforms, are known as non-separating Puritans. This groups differed among themselves about how much further reformation was necessary. * Spreading: Puritanism spread in England during the reign of Elizabeth I At the end of the reign of Elizabeth I the Puritans constitued a self-defined group whithin the Church of England who regarded themselves as the godly, they held out little hope for those who remained attached to "popish superstitions“.

Main features of Puritans The term "puritan" cannot strictly be used to describe any new religious group after the 17th century. The word "Puritan" is applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the later 16th century onwards, and Puritans did not originally use the term for themselves, considering that it was a term of abuse. The literature on Puritans, particularly biographical literature on individual Puritan ministers, became large already in the 17th century, and indeed the interests of Puritans in the narratives of early life and conversions made the recording of the internal lives important to them. The historical literature on Puritans is, however quite problematic and subject to controversies of interpretation.

Puritans were politically important in England, but it is debated whether the movement was in any way a party with policies and leaders before the early 1640s. Puritanism in New England was important culturally for a group of colonial pioneers in America, but there have been many studies trying to pin down exactly what the identifiable cultural component was. Puritan millennialism has been placed in the broader context of European Reformed views on the millennium and interpretation of Biblical prophecy, for which representative figures of the period were: - Johannes Piscator - Thomas Brightman - Jeseph Mede - Johannes Hwinrich Alsred - John Amos Comenius.

Puritan culture emphasized the need for self-examination and the strict accounting for one’s feelings as well as one’s deeds. This was the center of evangelical experience, which women in turn placed at the heart of their work to sustain family life. The words of the Bible, were the origin of many Puritan cultural ideals, especially regarding the roles of men and women in the community. Authority and obedience characterized the relationship between Puritan parents and their children. Proper love meant proper discipline;, the family was the basic unit of supervision. A breakdown in family rule indicated a disregard of God’s order.

Their way of thinking Puritans believed that secular governors are accountable to God to protect and reward virtue, including "true religion", and to punish wrongdoers. They opposed the supremacy of the monarch in the Church (Erastianism), and argued that the only head of the Church in heaven or earth is Christ. Puritans sought both individual and corporate conformity to the teaching of the Bible, with moral purity pursued both down to the smallest detail as well as ecclesiastical purity to the highest level. They believed that man existed for the glory of God; that his first concern in life was to do God's will and so to receive future happiness. They did not celebrate traditional holidays which they believed to be in violation of the regulative principle. The Puritans believed that the Bible was God’s true law, and that it provided a plan for living.

New England Puritans Puritans usually migrated to New England as a family unit, a pattern different from other colonies who where young, single men often came on their own. Puritan marriage choices were influenced by young people’s inclination, by parents, and by the social rank of the persons involved. The first Puritans of New England certainly disapproved Christmas celebrations, as did some other Protestant churches of the time. They were not, however, opposed to drinking alcohol in moderation. Puritans are often credited as the first American individualists, and at the same time the Puritan predilection to control others and how they live has been identified with an American social cultural tendency to oppose things such as open sexuality. The doctrine of predestination kept all Puritans constantly working to do good in this life to be chosen for the next eternal one.

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell was born on 25 th April 1599 and died on 3 rd September He was one of the most important exponents of the Puritans. He was an English military and political leader best known in England for his overthrow of the monarchy and temporarily turning England into a republican Commonwealth, and for his rule as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. Cromwell was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in the English Civil War. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, Cromwell dominated the short-lived Commonwealth of England, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in Cromwell made an independent style of Puritanism. It was an essential part of his life.