John Winthrop
1588-1654
A Modell of Christian
Charity
John Winthrop
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Winthrop obtained a royal
charter along with other
wealthy Puritans for the
Massachusetts Bay
Company (another name
for the colony in present
day Salem and Boston). He
escorted a group of
Puritans to the New World
in 1630.
Winthrop was elected
Governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Aboard the Arabella
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Winthrop, with
hundreds of other
Puritans, travelled
aboard the Arabella to
the New World.
While aboard,
Winthrop wrote and
delivered the sermon
A Modell of Christian
Charity to fellow
passengers.
A Modell of Christian Charity
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“...For wee must consider that we shall be
as a citty upon a hill. The eies of all
people are uppon us. Soe that if wee shall
deale falsely with out God in this worke
wee haue undertaken, and soe cause him
to withdrawe his present help from us,
wee shall be made a story and a by-word
through the world...”
A Modell of Christian Charity
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The previous words are a
vocational charge upon the
community.
This parallels the tasks laid
on the people of Israel who
believed they had a
specific duty to serve God.
Winthrop’s sermon gave
rise to the widespread
belief that America is God’s
Country because
metaphorically it is a city
upon a hill.
Modern Uses
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On January 9, 1961
President-Elect John F.
Kennedy quoted
Winthrop in his
address to the General
Court of
Massachusetts.
Ronald Regan used
the image of a city
upon a hill in his 1989
farewell speech to the
nation.
Analysis of Modell of Christian Charity
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How does John Fitzgerald
Kennedy use the phrase “city
upon a hill” to bolster 20th
century values?
How does Kennedy’s address
to the Massachusetts Court
help answer the following
essential question– How does
the conception of faith as
established by the Puritans
affect Americans today?
Hint- you must write of the
paradox explained yesterday,
and the modern concept of “a
city upon a hill”.