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John Winthrop City Upon A Hill Summary

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Recommended: Religion in 1608-1674

John Winthrop’s “City upon a Hill,” 1630 “City upon a hill” was written in 1630 by Puritan Leader John Winthrop. The puritans wear Christian who wanted to purify the church of England. The bible was their only “authority” and thy believed it applied to all colonies and life. The Puritans believed that “obedience of women, children, and servants to men’s will was foundation of social stability,” (Give me Liberty P.68). The Puritans allowed women to become full members of church because the interpretation of the bible “ opened the door for some women to claim position of religious leadership”(Give me Liberty p.69). In Winthrop’s speech, he talks about a city upon a hill that every colony would admire and imitate. He starts out his speech by …show more content…

Puritans were Christians who had to follow their lives according to the bible. In Winthrop’s speech, he informs the people that God is with them, but like England if they failed to create a godly society than they will face the “wrath of god.” Winthrop’s focus in this speech is to urge people to be caring, loving, and selfless for the sake of the godly mission; So they can truly succeed. He also wants to have equality among everyone in terms of wealth to create natural community of faith so that religious believes are not forced upon anyone. Winthrop continuously tells people to become caring, loving, and selfless, instead of saying that they already are all those things. If the Puritans succeed in becoming all those things than their society will be admired, but not the Puritans themselves as much. For Winthrop its about serving the God as a society, rather than pleasing individual of the society. For him, the city upon a hill doesn’t have to be perfect. He wanted to settle far from the Pilgrims because he didn’t wanted to be contaminated from the bad luck of Jamestown. At the end of his speech, he talks about good and evil and informing the Puritans the they have to choose their way. From this statement, we can assume that Winthrop believe that just like everyone else Puritans had to choose between

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