Notes for 2130 (American Puritanism)              

Types of Works

1-World Of Imagination

            A) Voyage Narratives

            B) Documentation

            C) Imagery, Description

            EX:  Columbus/Letter to Luis Sangangel

2-World Of Religious Dominance (also political)

            A) Winthrop/Massachusetts Bay Colony (Mayflower Compact)

            B) Bradford/Plymouth Colony (Arbella Covenant)

            C) Bradstreet

3-Native American Oral Literature

            A) Not recognized during this time period as literature (defined as orature)

            B) Oral Literature was only defined as literature once the definition changed from

            the medium of expression (all language preserved in letters) to the kind of

            expression (those texts that emphasized the imaginative/emotional possibilities of

            language) [did not occur until the age of Romanticism];

American Puritanism

1-Basic Puritan Beliefs

            A) TULIP(see online notes)     

B) Typology

**Definition: Based on an ancient hermeneutic method (theory and methodology of interpretation of the Scriptures) typology is the interpretation of Old Testament events, persons, and ceremonies as signs which prefigured Christ’s fulfillment and new covenant with the apostolic church (Hebrews 10:1)

1) involves the identification of a type (figure, concept, ceremony, or event) as an Old Testament precursor and an anti-type—a New Testament figure, concept, ceremony, or event, that follows/fulfills the promise of the type

2) Emory Eliott’s “New England Puritan Literature”: “[T]ypological hermeneutics involved explicating signs in the Old Testament as foreshadowing events and people in the New Testament”

3) Examples: 1) Jonah’s 3 days in the whale (Jonah 1: 1-17)/ Christ’s 3 days in the tomb (Matthew 27: 57-66); 2) Atlantic Journey of the Puritans/Exodus of the Israelites

**Information taken from: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit.typology.htm

            C) Manifest Destiny

**Term first used by journalist John O’Sullivan (1845); believed that God had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy throughout North America; prior to this John Winthrop had articulated the concept in the Arbella Covenant (1630): “. . . for we must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. . . “ [***Arbella Covenant had promoted a settlement separate from the political influences of Great Britain]

2-Function/Style of Puritan Writers

            A) Make God more relevant

            B) Glorify God

            C) Reverence to the Bible

            **Bradstreet poem**

3- Forces Undermining/Questioning Puritanism

            A) Rationale that good deeds and works are futile if all are pre-destined

B) How do we establish an American Identity if we are not allowed to do so because of pre-destination?

            ***Franklin Attempts to Address During Enlightenment Period***