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The selections by Bradford, Winthrop and Bradstreet give us glimpses into the Puritan/Pilgrim mindset. There are some subtle differences between Puritans and Pilgrims, although they share many of the same convictions and are often lumped together in discussion. The Plymouth Pilgrims were separatists; that is, they broke from the church of England in an attempt to purify religion of the trappings they believed took them away from the presence of God. They wanted the focus of religion to shift back to the understanding and interpretation of scripture. The Puritans also wanted changes in the church, but they wanted to change from within rather than separate from it entirely.
Bradford is very quick to define experiences through the "will of God. " The Pilgrims undertook their journey resigned to the providence of God, whatever their fates may be. They also found connections between themselves and the people of Israel who marched out of Egypt toward the promised land of Canaan. The Pilgrims arrived in the new world ready to establish their devotion and commitment to God, an act which would necessarily demand the conversion of the "savages" to Christianity. The world they found in America and all of their experiences are filtered through these lenses. Therefore, it is easy to understand how they could justify the theft of the natives' winter cache of corn by believing that God led them to that corn in order to aid their mission. Even though we can understand their attitudes and motivations, we still must evaluate their actions as we further our exploration of what has gone into the construction of "American" consciousness.
Winthrop, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1630, was a Puritan. Like Bradford, he saw connections with the Israelites. As you see in his speech delivered during the passage to America, he was excited to establish a community that would serve as a great example for the entire world to follow. Many of his attitudes can be seen in political speeches today.
Bradstreet is interesting for several reasons. First of all, she was also a Puritan, but she gives us several glimpses of personal uncertainty about her relationship with God. Ultimately, she always reaffirms her faith, but still her writing deconstructs the notion that all Puritans were God-crazed extremists. Also, she challenges the notion that women were not intellectual and could not produce art (in her case poetry) on the level that men could. Even though she assumed her prescribed social role of bearer of the domestic responsibilities, she still (amazingly) found time to produce magnificent poetry. As one reads Jonathan Edwards's "Personal Narrative" and "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, " pay particular attention to the fact that, like Bradstreet, Edwards struggles with his faith.
Many times, he would doubt his faith and return "like a dog to his vomit" to sinful ways. However, he does eventually find a steadfast faith in God. It is interesting that his faith, unlike strict Puritan faith, does not center around the hope of God's grace. Edwards was influenced by the writings of John Locke who believed in rational thought and reason; because of this influence, he saw the route to God as one of experience, through "the direct view of the glorious things of the gospel. " In many ways, he anticipates the Deist movement that Franklin advocates. In some respects, Emerson was the greatest intellectual presence in the 19 th century. His thoughts and ideas influenced countless people, not just writers, throughout the world.
Even though he did not have a distinguished college career, he nevertheless pushed the limits of his thought and challenged others to do the same. As Matthew Arnold said of Emerson, he was (and continues to be) "a friend and aider of those who would live in the spirit. " Many credit him as the father of Transcendentalism, an intellectual movement that first grew out of social and religious protest. Emerson, and other members of the loosely formed transcendentalist club, developed their ideas from many sources including Kant, Buddhist philosophy, Romanticism, and even Calvinism. After believing in traditional Christianity for a large part of his life, he develops the idea that one can develop and maintain a personal relationship with god. And he sees the personal soul as being a reflection of the soul of the world.
Like the Deists, he too believed that one could look to nature to understand and interact with god, but, unlike the Deists, he rejects Lockian empiricism as evidence for the existence of god. The transcendentalists wanted to regain the mysticism of religious experience which we saw in Jonathan Edwards but rejected the rigid idealism that accompanied Puritan and Calvinist ideology. Bibliography: 1) Commander, Henry Steele. Documents of American History. 9 th Edition. NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1973. 2) Gunn, Giles, ed. Early American Writing.
New York: Penguin Books, 1994. 3) Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson by William H. Gilman (Editor), Ralph Waldo Emerson. New American Library; Reissue edition, 1989
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Research essay sample on Ralph Waldo Emerson Relationship With God
