Journeys to America

Prof. Bruce Harvey

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION AND PURITANISM IN AMERICA ON ONE PAGE

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546), German monk, publishes his famous "95 Theses":

--challenges Medieval Catholic idea of indulgences (that you could, in effect, purchase redemption)

--salvation not by good works or individual merit

--but by faith in Christ's loving, redemptive sacrifice

--consequence 1: no real need for priesthood to mediate b/w man & God

--consequence 2: no need for catholic ceremony/sacraments/veneration of saints, etc.: Catholic ritual not efficacious 

--consequence 3: all Catholic ritual = human institutions polluting/mixing with pure word of God and apostolic Church

JOHN CALVIN, French lawyer living in Geneva, publishes Institutes of Religion in 1536:

--insists upon the logical consequences of perceiving God as omnipotent / omniscient

--God knows who will be elected to salvation and who will suffer eternal damnation

--God cannot be coerced or cajoled into extending His grace to you and you cannot earn it (to say you deserve His grace, to be saved, is to restrict His power)

--in the "Book of Life," as it were, your name is already written or not written: your fate is predestined

--consequence 1: no efficacy of church ritual (same as Luther)

--consequence 2: Christ's church should consist only of "Visible Saints" (those who testify to a gracious experience)

--consequence 3: preoccupation with exterior behavior as (imperfect) sign of inward election: best to act holy

--consequence 4: anxiety/inward searching: do you feel saved? Example: one mother so stressed out by knowing whether or not she is saved, kills her child to ensure damnation

--consequence 5: constant looking about for signs of God's love = His providential acts.  But good events may be Satan's snare, luring you into complacency ("Do not let me drowned in this deluge of security," one Puritan poet says); vice-versa, afflictions may be a sign of God's mercy, weaning you from love of this world

HOW PURITANISM COMES TO AMERICA

--Henry VIII wants a son, needs a divorce, & so splits from Catholic Church in 1533 and England becomes Protestant

--Puritans in late 16th/early 17th century believed the English Anglican church still maintained too much Catholic ritual (still had bishops, priestly vestments, stained glass windows, etc.)

--some hoped to reform from within; but still wanted a national church

--others believed you should not have a national church, because Church body would encompass some sinners

--the Pilgrims (William Bradford's party that land in Plymouth in 1620) did not want to participate in a corrupt church

--believed only elect should be part of church membership; so separated altogether to form their own church of the faithful

--the puritans (John Winthrop's group that lands in Salem in 1630) hope English church will cleanse itself: perhaps they, in the New World, will be an example