The Puritan Dilemma

2 Pages 453 Words

In The Puritan Dilemma we discover Edmund S. Morgan’s views of what Puritanism is and how John Winthrop dealt with the dilemma of being a puritan. Morgan describes that “Puritanism required that a man devote his life to seeking salvation but told him he was helpless to do anything but evil. Puritanism required that he rest his whole hope in Christ but taught him that Christ would utterly reject him unless before he was born God had foreordained his salvation. Puritanism required that man refrain from sin but told him he would sin anyhow. Puritanism required that he reform the world in he image of God’s holy kingdom but taught him that evil of the world was incurable and inevitable. Puritanism required that he work to the best of his ability at whatever task was set before him and partake of good things that God had filled the world with, but told him he must enjoy his work and his pleasures only, as it were absentmindedly, with his attention fixed on God.” (Morgan p5.) !
Morgan continues to describes a puritan’s belief as “existing by virtue of a covenant with God, an agreement whereby they promised to abide by His laws, and He in turn agreed to treat them well” (p15.)
John Winthrop caught the fever of Puritanism at college and for him the dilemma of living in the world without taking his mind off God was the hardest for him. Winthrop would have much rather been a monk or hermit, but that was not permitted Puritans must live in the world not leaving it. In Winthrop’s life he faces many dilemma’s which all have to do with the problem of living in the world without leaving it. The major dilemma’s are if Winthrop should leave England to go to the New World with the Massachusetts Bay Company and the problem of separatism and dissent in Massachusetts.
Winthrop is first faced the problem of leaving England. Winthrop is offered to go to the New World with the Massachusetts Bay Company as a governor. Wint...