Puritans and Quakers
Comparative Analysis of the Beliefs and Attitudes between Puritans and Quakers in Colonial America (17th-18th centuries)
Early Colonial American society during the 17th and 18th centuries is characteristically bound by strong religious beliefs of Christianity. The New England inhabitants from Britain, who have established their respective colonies in the Americas, have brought with them their cultural histories; thus, this culture had been further developed in the new country to strengthen its new identity and culture as the American society.
In colonial America, two religions dominated its cultural history: Puritans on one hand, and the Quakers, on the other. Puritanism was borne from the creation of a religion that seeks to fuse and at the same time, reform, the Catholic and Protestant teachings and principles. When it was created, it was given a chance to further develop and eventually became one of the dominant religions of the British colonies in America. Puritanism is known for its conservatism and strict adherence to the teachings of the Bible; since the religion aims to make Christian life, Christians of this religion are regarded as "purists" and intolerant to any deviations or differences of people from the established religious norms.
The Quakers, meanwhile, are actually categorized under the broad category of Puritanism. However, as the Puritans and Quakers established their own colonies in America, the latter became an independent religious institution from Puritanism. Also called the Society of Friends, Quakers adopts a more pragmatic approach towards living the Christian life than the Puritans. For them, "God exists in everyone"; furthermore, Quakerism is considered a way of life where the primary objective is to bring out the "God" in all of us and eliminate the evil that lurks from within the heart of people, which hinders them to cultivate their...
Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance by Kai T. Erickson. Specifically, it will contain an extra chapter to "Wayward Puritans" demonstrating how the study illustrates the social control approach to deviance. The Puritan society of early New England is an excellent example of how a small society carefully controlled deviant behavior that frightened them. The Social Control Approach The sociological and historical study of the Puritans and their
Roger Williams was a Puritan Separatist and Baptist, who founded the new colony of Rhode Island after his expulsion from Massachusetts. His views were quite radical and democratic by 17th Century standards, since he supported religious freedom for all individuals and strongly disapproved of state-supported religions and established churches of the kind that existed everywhere at the time. Although his own views were strictly Calvinist, and he regularly entered into
" Mather 22) Hawthorne clearly stepped away from the Puritan ethic by consistently alluding to the existence of the earthly supernatural. Though this was a fear of the Puritans, clearly it was associated with Satan and possession of the living. In Hawthorne's works the supernatural was associated with less grand sources, such as those seen in Young Goodman Brown. (Hoeltje 39-40) Hawthorne allows his characters to explore concepts that would have been
Mayflower Compact Religion and the Mayflower Contract Some of the very first settlers to the United States were escaping religious persecution in Europe, but that in no way changed their mind about their connection between their religion and how they would later govern themselves. The Puritan settlers came to the New World with ideas of starting a new colony, with religion and governance intertwined. As they signed the Mayflower Contract, they believed
John Winthrop What is America's role in the world? Considering that America was in many ways founded experimentally, it is only natural to imagine that outside observers are constantly looking to America as an example or a source of guidance. In particular, America's early status as an experiment in religious tolerance has led to the popularity of the phrase and image of "the city on a hill." Derived from Jesus Christ's
In 1682, the Quakers purchased East New Jersey. Penn then sought to extend the Quaker region. The King granted Penn a land charter, the area that is currently known as Pennsylvania, and that charter made Penn a sovereign ruler and the world's largest private landowner. Penn named the region Sylvania, but Charles II changed that to Pennsylvania, to honor Penn's father. (See Jacobson, pp. 43-55). Pennsylvania was a very interesting
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