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Lecture Two: The American Dream: Puritans and New England

Issues:

1. The influence of religious idealism on American tradition.
2. The relationship between church and state.

Puritanism was a movement among English Christians seeking to reform the Anglican Church. Facing persecution in the 15th century, a group of separatists, the Pilgrims, sailed to America in 1620, establishing Plymouth, the first permanent settlement in New England.

Ten years later, a larger group of Puritans arrived with a powerful vision: to create a perfect society based on strict religious principles. New England provided an ideal environment for this experiment, with a clean slate and an opportunity to intertwine religious and political communities.

The Puritans believed that God would bless their settlements with protection and prosperity if they lived according to a holy pattern. This political organization laid the foundation for later American democracy, though some aspects of the Puritan political tradition were eventually abandoned.

Lecture Two:
The American Dream: Puritans and New England
Issues:
1/ - The role of a religious idealistic vision in the American tradition.
2/ - The relationship between church and state.

The movement known as “Puritanism” was an effort on the part of a group of
English Christians to reform the established Anglican Church. During the early 15th
Century Puritans in England faced harassment from the Government.

In 1620 a group of about 100 separatists, known as the Pilgrims sailed for
America in search of freedom to practice their religion as they wished, they landed at
Plymouth where they founded the first permanent settlement in New England.

Ten years later a new and larger group of Puritans arrived in New England. They
came to the New World not simply to escape trouble at home, but with a powerful
vision: The creation of a perfect society based on the strict practice of the religious
principles.
a. New England presented the Puritans with a pure and empty environment
in which to attempt their experiment of building a model community.
b. In order to put this vision into practice the “religious community” was
closely intertwined with the “political community”.
c. The Puritans believed that God would give protection and prosperity to
their settlements if the whole community lived according to a pattern of holy
behaviour.

The way in which New England society was organised politically provided some
of the roots from which later American democracy grew, but some aspects of the
Puritans political tradition were later abandoned.