Date of Award
7-1963
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Cornish, Dudley T
Keywords
Puritans, New England, History, Colonial period, approximately 1600-1775
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine three factors which contributed to the decline of New England Puritanism in the last half of the seventeenth century. Toleration, the Half-Way Covenant, and materialism were chosen because they violated three of the fundamentals of Puritanism. The principle of religious toleration denied the obligation of the church and the civil authorities to preserve the purity of the church through the ruthless extirpation of dissent and heresy. The Half-Way Covenant, by granting baptism to the non-elect, destroyed the exclusive church with its exacting conditions for membership. Materialism perverted the Calvinistic concept of calling by exalting self-interest at the expense of service to god and one's fellow man.
I became interested in Puritanism while preparing a paper on the English Levellers. Later it seemed worthwhile to look into the reasons for the rapid declension of the Holy Commonwealth of the New England which, although it had been established under almost ideal conditions, had been altered almost beyond recognition by the end of the seventeenth century.
The materials most useful to research in this period are John Winthrop's Journal, Edward Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence, Cotton Mather's Diary, and Puritans, edited by Perry Miller and Thomas Johnson, which contains primary material on every phase of Puritanism. The best sources for Puritan philosophy and covenant theology are Miller's The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century and The New England Mind: From Colony to Province. William Haller, in his studies in English Puritanism, The Rise of Puritanism and Liberty and Reformation in the Puritan Revolution, is useful for the English background of the movement and also offers material on the New England background of the movement and also offers material on New England Puritanism. A number of valuable documents are included in Smith, Handy, and Loetscher, American Christianity: An Historical Interpretation with Representative Documents.
Recommended Citation
Piley, Genevieve Patricia, "Some aspects of change in New England Puritanism" (1963). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 552.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/552