Puritanism
A
loosely organized reform movement originating during the English Reformation of
the sixteenth century. The name came from efforts to "purify" the
Church of England by those who felt that the Reformation had not yet been
completed. Eventually the Puritans went on to attempt purification of the self
and society as well.
History
The
theological roots of Puritanism may be found in continental Reformed theology,
in a native dissenting tradition stretching back to John Wycliffe and the
Lollards, but especially in the theological labors of first-generation English
reformers. From William Tyndale (d. 1536) the Puritans took an intense
commitment to Scripture and a theology which emphasized the concept of
covenant; from John Knox they absorbed a dedication to thorough reform in
church and state; and from John Hooper (d. 1555) they received a determined
conviction that Scripture should regulate ecclesiastical structure and personal
behavior alike.
Puritans
achieved a measure of public acceptance in the early years of Queen Elizabeth's
reign. They then suffered a series of reverses that lasted through the reigns
of her successors James I and Charles I. In the days of James I some Puritans
grew discouraged about their reforming efforts and separated entirely from the
Church of England. These Separates included the "Pilgrims," who after
a sojourn in Holland established in 1620 the Plymouth Colony in what is now southeastern
Massachusetts.
When
Charles I attempted to rule England without Parliament and its many Puritan
members, and when he tried systematically to root Puritans out of the English
church, a larger, less separatistic body emigrated to Massachusetts Bay (1630),
where for the first time Puritans had the opportunity to construct churches and
a society reflecting their grasp of the word of God. In England other Puritans
continued the struggle for reform. When war with Scotland forced Charles I to
recall Parliament in 1640, civil war was the ultimate result. That conflict
ended with the execution of the king (1649), the rise of Oliver Cromwell to the
protectorate of England, the production of the Westminster Confession and
Catechisms, and the erection of a Puritan Commonwealth. Yet Cromwell, for all
his abilities, found it impossible to establish a Puritan state. After his
death (1658), the people of England asked the son of Charles I to return, a
restoration marking the collapse of organized Puritanism in England. Across the
Atlantic a vital Puritanism survived only a little longer. By the time of
Cotton Mather (d. 1728) Indian warfare, the loss of the original Massachusetts
charter, and a growing secularization had brought an end to Puritanism as a way
of life in America.
Convictions.
Puritanism
generally extended the thought of the English Reformation, with distinctive
emphases on four convictions:
1.
that personal salvation was entirely from God,
2.
that the Bible provided the indispensable guide to life,
3.
that the church should reflect the express teaching of Scripture, and
4.
that society was one unified whole.
The
Puritans believed that humankind was utterly dependent upon God for salvation.
With their predecessors in England and with Luther and Calvin they believed
that reconciliation with God came as a gift of his grace received by faith. But Puritans also made distinctive
contributions to the general Reformed idea of salvation. They advocated a
"plain style" of preaching, as exemplified in the masterful sermons
of John Dod (1555-1645) and William Perkins (1558-1602), which was consciously
designed to point out simply the broad way of destruction and the strait gate
to heaven. They also placed a new emphasis on the process of conversion. In the
journals and diaries of leaders like Thomas Shepard (1605-49) they charted the
slow, and often painful, process by which God brought them from rebellion to
obedience.
With
the early English Reformers the Puritans believed, second, in the supreme
authority of the Bible. The use of Scripture, however, soon came to be a great
cause of offense between Puritans and their Anglican opponents and among
Puritans themselves. Puritans, Anglicans, and the many in between all believed
in the Bible's final authority. But Puritans came to argue that Christians
should do only what the Bible commanded. Anglicans contended rather that Christians
should not do what the Bible prohibited. The difference was subtle but
profound. Among Puritans considerable differences eventually appeared over what
Scripture demanded, especially in questions relating to the church. Some
(mostly in England) contended for a presbyterian state-church organization,
others (in Massachusetts and Connecticut) supported a congregational
organization in league with the state, while still others (English Independents
and Baptists as well as Roger Williams in New England) believed that the Bible
mandated congregational churches separate from the state. In short, Puritans
disagreed with Anglicans about the way to interpret the Bible, but they
differed among themselves about which biblical interpretations were best. The
former disagreement dominated English religious life so long as the king and
his episcopalian allies were in control. The latter came to the fore after the
success of the Puritan Revolution, and it led to the disintegration of
Puritanism in England.
These
disagreements should not hide the Puritans' overriding commitment to the
authority of Scripture. They made as serious an attempt as has ever been made
in the English-speaking world to establish their lives on the basis of biblical
instruction. When Puritan efforts to reform the kingdom of England faltered in
the last years of Elizabeth's reign, they turned to the one sphere they could
still control, their individual families. It was during this period around 1600
that Puritans began to place new emphasis on the sabbath, to revive family
worship, and to encourage personal acts of mercy to the sick and dying. When
Puritan prospects brightened in the 164os, this "spiritualization of the
household" emerged into the open.
Puritans
believed, third, that the church should be organized from Scripture. Anglicans
contended that episcopacy, since it was tried and tested by time and did not
violate any command of Scripture, was a godly and appropriate way of organizing
the church. Puritans responded that the defenders of episcopacy missed the
point, for they neglected to follow the positive teachings of the Bible.
Puritans argued that Scripture laid down specific rules for constructing and
governing churches. Furthermore, the Bible taught a system of church order that
was not based on bishops. Puritans maintained this conviction even when they
failed among themselves to agree on what that biblical system was. But even
these disagreements were fruitful, for they grounded the modern polity of
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists as well.
The
reason that Puritan beliefs concerning salvation, Scripture, and the church
created such upheaval was their fourth basic conviction, that God had
sanctioned the solidarity of society. Most Puritans believed that a single,
coordinated set of authorities should govern life in society. The result was
that Puritans sought nothing less than to make all England Puritan. Only late
during the Puritan Commonwealth did ideas of toleration and of what is known
today as pluralism arise, but these ideas were combated by most Puritans
themselves and firmly set to rest for another generation by the restoration of
Charles II.
From
a more disinterested perspective it is possible also to see great advantages.
The Puritans succeeded in bursting the bonds of mere religiosity in their
efforts to serve God. Puritanism was one of the moving forces in the rise of
the English Parliament in the early seventeenth century. For good and for ill,
it provided a foundation for the first great political revolution in modern
times. It gave immigrants to Massachusetts a social vision whose
comprehensively Christian character has never been matched in America. And, for
such a putatively uncreative movement, it liberated vast energies in literature
as well.
Notable
Puritans. The Puritans enjoyed a great number of forceful preachers and
teachers. The learned William Ames explained "the doctrine of living of
God" in The Marrow of Theology, a book used as a text during the first
fifty years of Harvard College. The sermons and tracts of William Perkins
outlined with sympathy the steps that a repentant sinner should take to find
God. John Preston preached the severity of God's law and the wideness of his
mercy fearlessly in the courts of James I and Charles I. John Owen, adviser to
Cromwell and vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, wrote theological
treatises on the atonement and on the Holy Spirit which still influence
Calvinistic thought in the English-speaking world. Together, the works of the
Puritans comprise Protestantism's most extensive library of sacred and
practical theology.