Puritans

Dallas Garcia

August 27 , 2007

5th Period

Puritans

Introduction

America has become the world 's superpower for quite a long time since after the Depression Years . It is able to sustain its position then and now depending on anybody 's viewpoint . If the Religious Right , the Evangelicals or Fundamentalists , were to be asked why America is what it is today in the world 's affairs , they 'd readily attribute it to the spiritual dimension : the favor of God is with this country since its pioneering days when the early

Christians settled here from England Among the pioneers are now popularly known as the Puritans

Who they were , how they lived , what their basic or fundamental beliefs were , and how much they played a part to what America or even the world has become , no one could possibly estimate to its closest All we know is the heritage which they passed on to this great country They played a great role in establishing the first free schooling , first formal education , and first American college , Harvard in Cambridge , and the first to write books for children expressing the distinct difference in communicating with this age level (Kizer . These were some of their contributions and they are no small feats if one has to consider their impact to civilization . This attempts in prycis to describe the Puritans , peeking into their distinctiveness and their other contributions to the country and the world

Discussion

Puritanism was a movement within the Anglican Church in England during the time of Oliver Cromwell which was in reaction to the growing discontent regarding the religious , moral and societal practices of their day . They were considered dissenters and deemed that those in the leadership were beyond reform , hence , the many that set sail and settled in America during the colonial era . New England had become their home and from there , sprang the shapers of this country 's religious character . This was best attributed to the works of the great American preacher Jonathan Edwards and other leaders like him in what was recognized as the Great Awakening . The Puritans acknowledged only the tenets of the Bible , and only from its pages are the only valid or authentic laws which are to be applied to all aspects of living . It was the Puritans who tore away the established church 's ruling that only those in the clergy have the access to God . They somehow succeeded to remove the rituals and formalities that Christianity ' in general has accumulated from the early years (Johnson Woloch , United States (History , 2006

There are some myths or misinformation carried down the years that form a wrong perception of the Puritans . Firstly , the original /actual English Puritans were not a small group of dissenters , but in fact a big organized people who succeeded in the Parliament of England with Cromwell at the helm . However , this was not for long , the fact that some of them were forced to immigrate to America to escape religious and political...