PURITANISM IN
AMERICA
BRENNA LIPONIS AND JACK YOU
PILGRIMS, PURITANS, AND SEPARATISTS
1620
WHO ARE
PURITANS?
• RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT (PROTESTANTS) IN THE 16TH
AND 17TH CENTURY
• OPPOSED TO THE EPISCOPAL SYSTEM AND CHURCH
MONARCHY WHICH SEEMED CORRUPT AND “IMPURE”
• WANTED TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE INDIVIDUALLY (IN
ENGLISH)
• FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL AND CONGREGATIONAL PIETY
• NEW ENGLAND PURITANS SEARCHING FOR RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM– SEPARATISTS
• SEPARATISTS FOUNDED AMERICA
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT TURNED
NATIONAL IDENTITY
Although the religious movement dissolved in the 17th
century, the values that have evolved from the original
Puritan religion permeate the narratives we tell
ourselves every day in media culture.
Values
Establish
Kingdom of
Heaven on
Earth
Intended
Outcome
Optimism
Resourceful
Puritanism
Exercise of
Mechanical
Skill
Piety
Homogenous
Community
Spiritual
Collective
Moral Outlook
Selflessness
NARRATIVES
FROM AMERICA’S INCEPTION TO TODAY
ESTABLISHING KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON
EARTH
•
“…FOR WEE MUST CONSIDER THAT WEE SHALL BE AS A CITTY UPON A HILL, THE EIES OF ALL PEOPLE ARE UPPON US; SOE THAT
IF WEE SHALL DEALE FALSELY WITH OUR GOD IN THIS WORKE WEE HAVE UNDERTAKEN AND SOE CAUSE HIM TO WITHDRAWE
HIS PRESENT HELP FROM US, WEE SHALL BE MADE A STORY AND A BYWORD THROUGH THE WORLD..”
-- JOHN WINTHROP, 1630
•
“IN 1835, ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE IN DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA WOULD DESCRIBE THE CIVILIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND AS ‘A
BEACON LIT UPON MOUNTAIN TOPS WHICH, AFTER WARMING ALL IN ITS VICINITY, CASTS A GLOW OVER THE DISTANT
HORIZON’”
--HOPPER, P. 5
EXERCISE OF MECHANICAL SKILL
•
“ONE REASON WHY AMERICAN MEN BECAME OBSESSED WITH THEIR AUTOMOBILES IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY WAS PRECISELY THAT THEY COULD TINKER WITH THEM ON SATURDAY
MORNING. AS LATE AS THE 1960S, IF A COMPANY PRESIDENT DID HIS OWN PLUMBING, HE WOULD ENSURE THAT THIS FACT APPEARED IN HIS OFFICIAL COMPANY BIOGRAPHY; IT SHOWED HE
WAS A ‘REAL AMERICAN’. A WILLINGNESS TO GET THEIR HANDS DIRTY DISTINGUISHED MANAGERS FROM THEIR EUROPEAN EQUIVALENTS; THIS DISTINCTION REFLECTED THE RELATIVE LACK
OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN THE NEW WORLD, THE MEN AT THE TOP AND BOTTOM BEING CONSIDERED TO BE MADE FROM THE SAME COMMON CLAY.”
--HOPPER, KEN; HOPPER, WILL. D.. PURITAN GIFT : TRIUMPH AND DECLINE OF AN AMERICAN DREAM, P. 7
•
“IN 1865, THE FRENCH AUTHOR, JULES VERNE, WOULD REMARK IN HIS NOVEL FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON THAT ‘YANKEES, WHO ARE THE WORLD’S FINEST MECHANICS, ARE
ENGINEERS IN THE SAME WAY AS ITALIANS ARE MUSICIANS AND GERMANS ARE METAPHYSICIANS – THEY WERE BORN THAT WAY’.”
--HOPPER, KEN; HOPPER, WILL. D.. PURITAN GIFT : TRIUMPH AND DECLINE OF AN AMERICAN DREAM, P. 4
COLLECTIVE MORAL OUTLOOK
•
“…TO WALKE HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD, FOR THIS END, WEE MUST BE KNITT TOGETHER IN THIS WORKE AS ONE MAN, WEE MUST
ENTERTAINE EACH OTHER IN BROTHERLY AFFECCION, WEE MUST BE WILLING TO ABRIDGE OUR SELVES OF OUR SUPERFLUITIES, FOR
THE SUPPLY OF OTHERS NECESSITIES, WEE MUST UPHOLD A FAMILIAR COMMERCE TOGETHER IN ALL MEEKENES, GENTLENES,
PATIENCE AND LIBERALLITY, WEE MUST DELIGHT IN EACHE OTHER, MAKE OTHERS CONDICIONS OUR OWNE REJOYCE TOGETHER,
MOURNE TOGETHER, LABOUR, AND SUFFER TOGETHER, ALLWAYES HAVEING BEFORE OUR EYES OUR COMMISSION AND COMMUNITY
IN THE WORKE, OUR COMMUNITY AS MEMBERS OF THE SAME BODY”
-- JOHN WINTHROP, 1630
•
“WE KEEP SEEING MORE EXAMPLES OF FACEBOOK HELPING PEOPLE SHARE EXPERIENCES AND VALUES AND SAVE THEM FOR FUTURE
REMINISCING.”
-- SAMUEL AXON, MASHABLE: THE SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE
THE LEGACY OF PURITANISM: INTOLERANCE
FEMALE SUBMISSIVENESS
EXEMPLARS OF THE PURITAN AMERICAN IDEAL, HEROES IN OUR
NATIONAL MYTHOLOGY AND CULTURE
Benjamin Franklin
Inventor, Philosopher,
Founding Father,
Politician, Civic Activist, etc
“Stacy Schiff has said that
he ‘truly believed it was
always morning in
America’.” (Hopper, p. 5)
Thomas Jefferson
Third President of the
United States, Main Author
of Declaration of
Independence, Founding
Father
Changed John Locke’s “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of
estate,” into “life, liberty, and
TOMMY J
the pursuit of happiness.”
Google
“Google Inc., which now dominates the
world of communications. Their motto
is, ‘Don’t be evil’. We have been told
that they are motivated by ‘PURITANICAL
FANATICISM’ and a desire to change the
world, making it a better place’; a
visitor to their head office is reported
to have said that he felt he was in the
OOGLE
‘COMPANY OFGMISSIONARIE
s’. Another
observer says that ‘Google is a religion
posing as a company’.” (Hopper, p. 5)
Superman
“Truth, Justice and the
American Way”
Ordinary American from
Smallville
REALITY
Consumerist Values Taking OVER THE
WORLD!
ANOTHER LESS-POPULAR STORY RUNS PARALLEL TO THE PURITAN NARRATIVE
… and the liberation of women from the
private sphere
RESOURCEFULNESS TURNED EXPLOITATIVE
•
“BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY, AND REPLENISH THE EARTH, AND SUBDUE IT: AND HAVE DOMINION OVER THE FISH OF THE SEA,
AND OVER THE FOWL OF THE AIR, AND OVER EVERY LIVING THING THAT MOVETH UPON THE EARTH. BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN
THEE EVERY HERB BEARING SEED, WHICH IS UPON THE FACE OF ALL THE EARTH, AND EVERY TREE, IN THE WHICH IS THE
FRUIT OF A TREE YIELDING SEED; TO YOU IT SHALL BE FOR MEAT.”
--THE BIBLE
“AS A NATION, WE HAVE MUCH TO BE PROUD OF, AND HISTORICALLY HAVE BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF DEMOCRATIC,
PROGRESSIVE POLITICS, BUT IN TERMS OF OUR ULTIMATELY UNSUSTAINABLE DEPENDENCE UPON EXPLOITATION, WE
SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF BOTH OUR HISTORY AND OUR CURRENT STATE.”
--THOM HARTMAN, AMERICA: THE EXPLOITATIVE NATION
LOSS OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES
• “WHEN THE LATE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PURITAN DIVINE, COTTON MATHER, REMARKED THAT RELIGION
BEGOT PROSPERITY AND THE DAUGHTER HAD DESTROYED THE MOTHER, HE MEANT THAT DILIGENCE AND
ECONOMY HAD CREATED WEALTH – AND THAT THE NEWLY WEALTHY COLONISTS WERE STRAYING FROM
THE PATH OF VIRTUE.” (HOPPER, P. 9)
• “IN THE U.S. […] WORSHIP AT A CHURCH IS RIVALED ONLY BY THE WORSHIP OF THE SHOPPING MALL.”
-- WILL HUTTON
SELFLESSNESS TURNED SELFISHNESS
• “WINTHROP HAD WITNESSED WITH DISMAY THE DRIFT OF ENGLISH CULTURE AND DEPLORED THE
“OVERALL MORAL CLIMATE THAT ALLOWED AND ENCOURAGED PURPOSELESS, UNREFLECTIVE EGOTISM”
-- DAVID M. ROBINSON, THE CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF AMERICAN PURITANISM, P. 742
LIBERATION OF WOMEN
“Post-feminist critic Camille Paglia argued by
contrast that Madonna's unabashed sexuality
exposed “the puritanism and suffocating
ideology of American feminism”
--Diane Pecknold, Pop Culture Universe
IN CONCLUSION
As time
goes on….
Puritan
Values
Consumerist
Values
• KEEPING PURITAN VALUES OF
• ATTEMPTING TO CREATE A BETTER COMMUNITY
• MECHANICAL AND MANAGERIAL SKILL
• COMMUNITY
• EVOLVING FROM PURITAN VALUES OF:
• SUBORDINATING THE INTERESTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO
THAT OF THE GROUP
• SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES
• HOMOGENEITY, AND THE SUBMISSION OF WOMEN
• ALWAYS CELEBRATING
• SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE GREATER GOOD
THANK YOU