ipl-logo

Puritans Role In Communication Essay

901 Words4 Pages

During the 17th and 18th centuries, writing played a significant role in communication and in the recording of history. Authors were the main form of media in the absence of the internet or modern technology for all kinds of people; Puritans, Rationalists, and Native Americans as well. Through these literatures, which have survived the last few hundred years, it’s possible to take a closer look into the lives and beliefs during that time period.

The Puritans left Great Britain to pursue religious freedom. Christianity and God was their priority in life and they wanted to be able to live the way they felt was appropriate. All authority was in the Bible and religious figures in their town, combining both church and state. A Prezi presentation from the course scratches the surface of Puritan life, saying “They didn't believe in celebrations, dancing, or anything of that sort. Puritan goal was to purify themselves and their communities from any appearance of evil. In our government & court system today we believe in the separation of church and state, but the Puritans believed in combining the two to use to their best advantage.” The Puritans have a reputation for being a very strict, legalistic group of people. Although it may be warranted, I would …show more content…

In Benjamin’s autobiography, he wrote “I proposed to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning.” He made a chart to track his progress and physically count how well he was doing with his values, many of these values even aligned with Puritan beliefs. However, it was very clear that Religion would have no legal authority over people, and that each individual would be free to follow their own belief

Show More
Related
1729 Words | 7 Pages

In the year of 1630, a group of people known as the Puritans arrived to America and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. The Puritans were similar to the Pilgrims in which they were Protestants from England who thought that their reforms of their church were “too Catholic” and needed to be changed further. The Puritans being unhappy with their reforms was the primary reason for leaving England and settling in America, while the Pilgrims stayed behind and were determined to change their reforms. When they came to America, they decided to keep some of their strict rules. For example, church was mandatory and if someone missed a day,

Read More
1891 Words | 8 Pages

In the Puritan family, the family managed all things. The towns were seen as part of a greater family, all were invited to weddings and baptisms. Doors were never locked because the idea was that Puritans should have nothing to hide from each other. Even on the honeymoon it was common for an aunt, uncle, or parent to watch the new couple make love for the first time to insure everything was done right. Church was a large part of the Puritan experience and the Meeting was a time when the people of the town would gather in the church with the minister to discuss religion, voting, or anything else of importance.

Read More
849 Words | 4 Pages

They wanted to create pure, moral Christian society based on moral living. By hard working, integration of religion in politics, and social development of certain lifestyle practices, Puritans had a large influence on the development of the New England colonies from 1630s through the 1660s. Puritans believed in hard work as the pathway of success since they thought they were favored by God to succeed (Doc I). They tried to shun idleness and believed that being lazy is not profitable (Doc C).

Read More
200 Words | 1 Pages

The Puritans in Massachusetts were very intolerant of other religious beliefs, regardless of the fact that they had been persecuted in England for what they believed. Puritans insisted that regular church attendance was mandatory in order to receive voting privileges. This meant that in order to have a say in anything you had to be a devout Puritan. They often argued about discrepancies within their own religion, such as whether or not sainthood was passed down from generation to generation. Puritans even went as far as to exile other Puritans the did not conform to the standard version of Puritanism.

Read More
973 Words | 4 Pages

The Puritans were heavy believers in their religion. They would make their children read the bible. The closest thing today to the Puritans is probably Amish. They would be obligated to pay the Rev. Parris money to just hear him speak. At one point people stopped going to church because of his niece.

Read More
898 Words | 4 Pages

It was against the law to speak out and have opinions, being expected to work hard was not out of the ordinary. Puritans were expected to live by a strict moral code. Believing that all sins should be punished. “They believed that God would be the one punishing for sins and bad behavior. Friends that suffered from loses, and misfortunes would not be helped by Puritans” (Marvel 73).

Read More
590 Words | 3 Pages

To control this while still allowing independence, they were going to have to coincide with other fellow Puritan’s opinions. According to David Hall there are 4 major questions you have to ask, whether “Puritanism was coherent, if they were authoritarians, creed and Practice, and finally how relevant and important religion was in people’s changing lives.” These questions were the very basics that lead the Puritan’s to emigrate to a society where they were able to express themselves freely, unfortunately, the religion changed along with a new generation, continuing the

Read More
977 Words | 4 Pages

The denomination was the main part of a town and it also served as a meeting tribe. lazie or dronish life”(Doc I), he also states: “but have rather studyed and endeavored to redeeme my age as a thing most deare and precyous to me and have often denyed myself in such refreshings” (Doc I). The Puritans believed in personal, as well as collective hoax-government within each participation or settlings. In the Mayflower Compact, one will find all of the essentials of, say, the United States Constitution (minus some details). The wise standpoint of Puritan communities centered fundamentally around God, and the Bible.

Read More
1474 Words | 6 Pages

Society was very strict in religious practice and in education. In Nathaniel Ward’s excerpt “The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam” he said that, “He that is willing to tolerate any religion, or discrepant way of religion, besides his own, unless it be in matters merely indifferent, either doubts of his own or is not sincere in it” (Doc E). This shows religious intolerance which wasn’t strange in this time period and it is most likely heavily emphasized because the Puritans still felt persecuted from when they practiced their own religion back in their time in England. Another example of the dedication to their religion is when William Bradford wrote about his attack on the Pequot’s Mystic River village, he said, “But the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God.” This shows their dedication to God, as they justify burning the entire village by saying it was for God and saying it was a merciful death for them because it happened so fast.

Read More
2064 Words | 9 Pages

The Puritan colonists were bound by laws of morality with judgments with sentences that were the base of fear. The laws were centered on the basics of not going to church daily to practicing witchcraft, adultery, even not having regular sex to procreate. There were many laws of the time with cause and effect that harmed many people. Through the seventeenth century, laws were connected to morality, reflected in the ways Puritans used religious beliefs in the process of rendering judgment and assigning punishments to keep colonists from leaving their colony and gaining freedoms of their own. Puritan Religion ~

Read More
1763 Words | 8 Pages

Puritans believed that they were doing God's work and that those who disobeyed or strayed from Puritan teachings were sinners”. This states that while not attending seems quite childish to say that one is a witch, it was more of what the public would suspect as church and public appearances were mandatory to show how faithful and abiding one

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

Their government was a blend of theocracy and modern democracy. They wanted to build a government in which church and government had the same power: “In the creation of their colony the Puritans wished to be sure that the same sort of situation where the church was dominated by the government would not occur in their colony as it had in England, however at the same time they wished to create a ‘city upon a hill’” (The Puritans: Church and State).Puritans wanted to create a city that everyone else in the world looks up to. The colonial law provided some basic laws that let people elect their leaders only if they were a member of the church. All the members of the government had to attend church and pay their taxes to the church.

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

The Puritans based their lives on the covenants they made when they came to New England. The covenant was agreeing to base their life around God or face the consequences. When the Puritans broke the covenants they were punished by public humiliation, exile from the community, and even death ("Puritans (1600-1754)."). The Puritans were hellbent on keeping sin out of the colonies because many people watched their loved ones die on the journey to New England. They also suffered through a harsh winter and battled starvation so they took it upon themselves to do anything to “purify” the colonies ("Puritans (1600-1754).").

Read More
1850 Words | 8 Pages

Chapter 3 Outline: • 3.1 The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism • 3.2 The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth • 3.3 The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth • 3.4 Building the Bay Colony • 3.5 Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth • 3.6 The Rhode Island “Sewer” • 3.7 New England Spreads Out • 3.8 Puritans Versus Indians • 3.9 Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence • 3.10 Andros Promotes the First American Revolution • 3.11 Old Netherlanders at New Netherlanders • 3.12 Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors • 3.13 Dutch Residues in New York • 3.14 Penn’s Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania • 3.15 Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors • 3.16 The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies   3.1 The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

Essentially, Puritans are expected to follow a strict set of religious and moral guidelines from which their actions and morality are derived. According to Hall’s A Reforming People, these moral expectations first introduced by the pilgrims were the driving force behind the power that the Puritan ministry had over society: “Ministers and laypeople looked first to congregations as the place where love, mutuality, and righteousness would flourish, and second to civil society. …Alongside love, mutuality, and righteousness they placed another set of values summed up in the word “equity.” Employed in a broad array of contexts, the concept of equity conveyed the colonists’ hopes for justice and fairness in their social world.”

Read More

More about Puritans Role In Communication Essay

Related Topics

Open Document