Puritan Beliefs
o Humans are totally depraved/sinful
creatures (Original Sin)
o Predetermination (saint/sinner)
 Elect/Saint: The select few
predetermined by God to go to heaven (not worthy,
but God is loving)
 Through intense introspection (prayer/meditation)
one can determine his/her spiritual state (one will feel
the arrival of God’s grace – Irresistible Grace)
 Exemplary behavior is a sign of saintliness
o One must live simply (this translates to their writing)
o Valued hard-work, honesty, responsibility, and selfcontrol
o Education is important because one must have personal
knowledge of Scripture (Bible = God’s word; Harvard)
o People need the rules and regulations of society
o The wilderness/frontier is the breeding ground for sin
Terminology
o Typology: Reading the present in terms of the past. The
Puritans believed that they were on a spiritual journey,
and they compared events in their lives/events in nature to
occurrences in the Bible. Basically, they used the bible to
interpret events in their own lives.
o Covenant: God’s contract with his people; his explicit
interaction.
o Divine Providence: God’s implicit intervention in human
affairs.
o Doctrine of Afflictions: God will sanctify himself in
those that are near him (God will test the elect, whereas
he might ignore a sinner). Think Job.
o Jeremiad: If a collective covenant is broken, God will
punish the entire group.