Colonial Era

Puritanism

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  sharp contrast between ideas of John Smith and John Winthrop (Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony)
  
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    Smith: pragmatic, secular and economically oriented
    
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    Winthrop: religious, vision of utopian community as foundation of a situation that was yet to come
    
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  Winthrop’s was a model of Christian charity, a program that sought to mediate between the assurance of a visionary mission and the constant self-criticism and doubt.
  
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  first presented on board the Arbella in 1630 on the way to America and addressed to his Puritan fellows. Winthrop was a lawyer and a theologian  his sermon ties together religious and judicial discourses
  
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  Starting point of his argument is “divine providence”, but as a judicial argument causes an unchangeable structure of society
  
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  The societal distribution of power is predestined, which follows the Puritan creed
  
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  The social stratification is a challenge for the community, but cannot be changed due to God’s will  goal is legitimating and endurance. To achieve this, Winthrop develops an economic model.
  
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  economic model is meant to lessen the tensions of inequality (although inequality as such cannot be changed)  system of exchange can help to make this more livable
  
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    strong grant safety to the weak, the rich support the poor
    
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    all those, who have been helped, will acknowledge the existing order as foundation of a strong and enduring community.
    

Explain Winthrop's idea of "Corpus Christi".

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  “duty of mercy” : based on three virtues: “giving, lending, and forgiving”
  
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  combines economical principles of giving and lending with religious principle of forgiving
  

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  thinks of this as mutual support in the building process of a community
  

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  community is a corpus christi, not as social or political, but as real physical body
  
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  parts or members means always both: part of the body and part of the community  must work together to give the Body its perfect shape
  

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  This body then is a perfect bond based on the mutual love of its members: “love is the bond of perfection”
  

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  forms basis of Puritan experience of community of brotherly love and God’s grace
  
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  legal understanding community: entails a contract, responsibilities and penalties in case of a breach of contract
  

Explain Winthrop's idea of "city upon a hill".

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  puritans set the example and the warning for the whole world
  
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  This in an image, an emblem, an allegory: the glowing city on a hill as visible realization of a religious and social program
  
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  total identification: the puritans are not LIKE the Israelites, the Puritans ARE the chosen people.
  

What do we understand as "Puritan Typology"?

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  Bible as only essential text
  
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  understanding of Bible is literal  belief in the absolute truth of its words
  
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  There is no interpretation, no exegesis. There is only the literal realization of the text.
  
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  Bible as law, rule, and guidance
  
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    text has its own logic
    
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    find the right passage  you’ll know what to do
    
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  Reality fulfills the text and only repeats typologically, what the text has already announced
  

What is the "Mayflower Compact"?

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  Plymouth: not the first colony of the New World, but became the first that was based on what could be termed a self-constitution
  
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  Before setting foot on American soil, the pilgrim fathers of the Mayflower had put into written form the conditions under which they would form their community  Mayflower Compact
  
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  Honoring God and King  but religious mission is most important
  
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  A community is sworn into being, a Civil Body Politic based on mutual obligations
  
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    proto-democratic constitution
    
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    Puritan understanding of community revolves only around themselves and the presence of God  perceived as radical separatists and anarchists
    

Explain the historical context of Merry Mount.

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  Merry Mount not original spelling (Mount Wollaston)  Morton renamed it Mount Ma-re, a play on ‘merry’ and ‘sea’, and then simply Merrymount.
  
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  Bradford’s displeasure and ridicule is obvious  “They changed also the name of their place, and instead of calling it Mount Wollaston they call it Merry-mount, as if this jollity would have lasted ever.”
  
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  Thomas Morton: also a writer
  
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    his only, but important text: “New English Canaan”: satire on Puritans, counterpart to Bradford’s history
    
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    not meant to be a history, but rather a pamphlet, a piece of propaganda
    
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  praises New England as worthy region, inhabited by friendly Indians, but haunted by inhuman Puritans
  
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    denunciation of the Puritan regime in the colonies and their policy of land enclosure and near genocide of the Native population.
    
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    Morton described the Indians as nobler culture
    
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    called for the 'demartialising' of the colonies and the creation of a multicultural New Canaan along the lines of Merrymount.
    
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  Although highly fictionalized, he was not tolerated by the Puritans  Repeatedly imprisoned, banned to England, returned again and again and caused trouble.
  

What is a jeremiad?

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  typical puritan text genres
  
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  a sermon bitterly lamenting the degenerate state of society
  
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  written in the form of an invective, bemoaning the morals and pointing out the prophecy of society’s downfall
  
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  term stems from the Biblical prophet Jeremiah and his writings: prophecy of coming downfall of the Kingdom of Judah because its rulers have broken the covenant with God
  
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  Thus, a jeremiad is a moralistic text that denounce a society for its wickedness, and includes the prophesy of its downfall.
  

What were the literary genres that the Puritans favored, and which did they reject?

Favoured

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  Public texts: sermons, church histories, educational and liturgical texts (prayer books, primers), political or theological pamphlets
  
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  Private texts: journals, diaries, letters, poems
  

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  small output of literary production  difficult conditions of production
  

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  issue of education: Especially those writing for the public were part of the official elite of New England  didacticism in texts, reflected the assumed supremacy of its writers
  

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  Fictional prose
  
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  Drama
  

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  puritan dogma had infiltrated most people to such an extent that private texts could not be written so easily  specific function: they means of self-questioning, of searching for truth and revelation. Difficult: question whether you were one of the few elect, continuous questioning and doubting
  

In what way does Anne Bradstreet balance art and religion in her "A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment"?

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  At first glance, Bradstreet does not rebel against any norms and standards: uses images and comparisons taken from nature to create the analogy between marital and godly love(according to Puritan dogma and like in sermons)
  
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    comparison of husband with sun (“sweet Sol”, “my Sun”), sun as symbol, Christ as groom is an imagery taken directly from the Bible
    
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  At end: necessary passage leading the private to the religious: “Flesh of they flesh…”  direct reference to Genesis
  
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  But it is this concluding turn that is also especially ambivalent: Bradstreet’s affirmation of marital love and of her motherly love, as image of her marital love, would have lead to the affirmation of her female submission to her husband as well as to the religious transcendence in the analogy of marital and godly marriage. Both she partially fails to do.  Puritan orthodoxy wants the wife to acknowledge her subordination willingly and with pleasure!
  
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  Bradstreet stresses the physical unity between herself and her husband, but she sets this forth as an implicit accusation claiming that this unity is disturbed by the husband’s absence which is fault only: “If two be one, as surely thou and I, How stayest thou there, whilst I a t Ipswich lie?”
  

What makes Edward Taylor an exceptional Puritan poet?

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  one of the most curious examples in American literary history and in the history of Puritan poetry
  
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  his work was discovered as late as 1937 in Yale since then, considered the most important American poet of the 17^th century.
  
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  Bradstreet and Taylor are 2 poets who produced high art within a theocratic system based on a repressive and fundamentalist ideology
  
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  problematic to categorize Taylor’s work:
  
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    Bradstreet still stays within the limits of plain style, mostly at least
    
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    BUT Taylor has moved far beyond those borders: His poetry is closer English metaphysical poets (John Donne, George Herbert)  style that would be called European High Baroque
    
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    abundance of ornament and images  incompatible with the Puritan dogma
    
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    In terms of themes and function of his poems  clearly an American puritan
    

What is a "meditation"? What style and function does a meditation have? Which poet became famous for writing meditations?

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  Edward Taylor made the meditation popular
  
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  Taylor’s meditations: intimate and private exercises
  
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    about specific Bible passages, are meant as inner preparation for the Lord’s Supper
    
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    moves away from the English metaphysics  mediations are oriented at discussing his belief  we can read, see and feel Taylors great emotional involvement, his struggle with doubts, thoughts and feelings, with his faith.
    
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  Taylor’s First Series of Meditation was written between 1682 and 1692
  
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    7 X 7 single meditations (7 is a mystical number, signifies perfection)
    
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  Central theme of the first series is “grace”
  
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    all meditations revolve around the communal act of the Lord’s Supper as always newly experienced act of Christ’s death as offer of grace, leading to the salvation of the sinful, degenerate human being
    
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    Taylor constantly reaffirms this state of human degradation, also strives to reaffirm the possibility of returning to the realization of almighty love. The closer you are to the abyss to be surpassed, the more intensive this love can be experienced. Essential for god’s act of grace is repentance, i.e. the awareness of one’s absolute unworthiness.
    

What is a "captivity narrative"? What style and function does such a text have? Which writer became famous for setting the standard for this genre?

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  Written by Mary Rowlandson
  
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  Unique: written and published by a woman
  
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    contains account of a most disturbing and alienating experience
    
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  Mary Rowlandson was captured by the Indians and thus – in Puritan parlance – got caught by the tools of Satan
  
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  The whole affair ends in the miracle of rescue or ‘salvation’ (?)
  
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  finds herself in an impossible situation that she cannot bear in terms of traditional modes of experience
  
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  Captivity Narrative shows how the bible is being put to pragmatic use  serves as interpretation of the conflicts, to make sense of the terrible things going on
  
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  Also as proof of the insurmountable difference between the Native and the Puritan cultures
  
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  Eventually: Bible as textual evidence for hope and rescue, if not from physical captivity, so at least in a spiritual rescue of her soul.
  
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  typology at its best: everything makes sense by comparing it to biblical examples.
  
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