Puritanism in America
THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
PURITAN VALUES IN NATIONAL
MYTHOLOGY
BRENNA LIPONIS AND JACK YOU
You Might Remember this…
1620
Pilgrims, Puritans, and
Separatists
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 17 th 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
Thomas
Jefferson
Superman
Google
Third
President
of the
United
States,
Main
Author
of Declaration of
Justice
and
thethe
American
“Google
Inc., “Truth,
which
now
dominates
world
ofWay”
communications.
Independence,
Founding
Father
Benjamin
Franklin
Ordinary
American
from
Their motto is,
‘Don’t
be
evil’. We
haveSmallville
been
told that they are
ChangedPhilosopher,
John
Locke’sFounding
“life,FANATICISM
liberty,
and Politician,
the
pursuit
of to
estate,”
into
Inventor,
Father,
Civic
Activist,
etc
motivated
by ‘PURITANICAL
’ and
a desire
change
the
“life,
liberty,
and
the pursuit
of it
happiness.”
“Stacy
Schiff
has said
heplace’;
‘truly
believed
always
morning
world,
making
it a that
better
a visitor
towas
their
head office
is in
America’.”
p.in
5)the ‘COMPANY OF
reported to have said
that he(Hopper,
felt he was
MISSIONARIEs’. Another observer says that ‘Google is a religion
posing as a company’.” (Hopper, p. 5)
BEN FRANKLIN
TOMMY J
GOOGLE
SUPERMAN
Reality
ANOTHER LESS-POPULAR STORY RUNS
PARALLEL TO THE PURITAN NARRATIVE
Consumerist Values Taking
OVER THE WORLD!
… 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
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