Pre-Colonial Literature

1. Pre-Colonial Literature Puritanism

2. PRIMARY TENETS • ORIGINAL DEPRAVITY: we are all born sinners (original sin) • LIMITED ATONEMENT: we can't change the fact that we are sinners • IRRESISTIBLE GRACE: if we are chosen by God, it is beyond our earthly control • PREDESTINATION: God has chosen his elect before we are born • COVENANT THEOLOGY: to reconcile the contradictions of predestination and limited atonement: 1) one's status as "saved" could never be known; 2) one knew that the elect were good people

3. POLITICAL PRINCIPLES • Colonial Puritanism is a militant, biblically based CALVINISTIC Protestantism • a.k.a. Reformed Tradition; Reformed Faith; reformer John Calvin • Known for predestination, total depravity; absolute sovereignty of God. • A COMPLETE REFORMATION both of religious and of secular life. • attacking the Anglican establishment in Great Britain • calling for a disciplined, godly life, and energetic evangelical activities. • a loose confederation of various DISSENTING SECTS • Emphasis was placed on • SELF-DISCIPLINE • INDIVIDUALISM • RESPONSIBILITY, WORK; • ASCETICISM an important influence upon the values and attitudes of the emerging middle classes. • main political objectives is the "PURIFICATION" OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY • the remnants of "corrupt" and "unscriptural" "papist" ritual and dogma -- which developed within the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Church of England.

4. SPIRITUAL VALUES • LITERAL AUTHORITY of the Christian Bible as a code for living. • SUCCESS: • In public and private life, they displayed open ambition, hard work, and an intense striving for SUCCESS. • In advancing their own profit and their community's well-being, they were also furthering God's plans. • SYMBOLS: To address the unpredictable nature of life, they consoled themselves in the belief that all things and events are symbols with deeper spiritual meanings. • WEALTH AND STATUS: were sought and praised as reassurances of spiritual health and promises of eternal life.

5. TYPICAL WRITING • “CORRECT” WRITING • Good Puritan writing--or, rather, correct writing--encouraged the significance of WORSHIPPING GOD. • Colonial Puritan writing promoted these aims in the face of New World adversity and the heathenism of indigenous peoples. • DANGERS OF THE SOUL: The common motivation to take up the quill was to warn of the spiritual dangers that the soul faced on Earth. • VARIED STYLE in spite of the limite purpose of Puritan literature • metaphysical poetry • Sermons • religious histories. • RELEVANT PURITAN WRITERS • POETS: Richard Baxter; Anne Bradstreet; William Cowper; Ralph Erskine; John Newton; Edward Taylor; Michael Wigglesworth. • PROSE WRITERS and AUTHORS: Steven Charnock; Ebenezer Erskine; Thomas Goodwin; William Gouge; Mary Rowlandson; Samuel Rutherford; Thomas Sheperd; C.H. Spurgeon; Thomas Watson; Alexander Whyte; Samuel Willard; John Winthrop.

6. LITERARY THEMES • LIFE AS A TEST: • Puritan life was a kind of romance or quest • failure meant eternal damnation and hellfire; success meant posthumous paradise. • The WORLD is an ARENA FOR THE BATTLE between the forces of God and the forces of Satan, a formidable enemy with many disguises. • The theme of the "MILLENNIUM” • prophesying the return of Jesus to Earth, an end to human misery • the beginning of a 1,000 years of PEACE AND PROSPERITY • USE OF BIBLICAL METAPHORS • In prose literature and sermons especially • Frequently used to explain the Puritan condition