"Why should I read the Puritans?" seems to be a fairly common response many modern Christians give to the suggestion that they should read something written by the Puritans. Many harbor the shallow view that H.L. Mencken espoused when he defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy." The unfortunate and highly caricatured idea of the Puritans as people who condemned all fun, enforced strict rules, and looked under every rock for a witch is usually the prevailing conception of the Puritans these same folks entertain. But a look at history and even a very casual sampling of the Puritans will destroy many of the superficial and popular ideas about them.
Probably no force was more important and influential in the shaping of American religion and culture than Puritanism. And probably no group of people has been more slandered and misunderstood than the Puritans. A class I took on the Intellectual and Cultural History of America helped me to realize the fundamental importance and influence of the Puritans. I am writing this article in hopes of spreading this appreciation to the reader. Hopefully, in future installments we will examine certain aspects of Puritanism and I will recommend several resources. Despite the abundance of caricatures and misconceptions about them, the Puritans made tremendous and invaluable contributions to England and America. They were not only known for their religious beliefs and practices, but were also the first major intellectual force in America.
Though the people associated with it shared a common background, as Puritanism aged it began to encompass a wide range of people and ideas. Cotton Mather, Anne Hutchinson, John Bunyan, Roger Williams, Jonathan Edwards, and, more recently, even Charles Haddon Spurgeon, have all been classified as Puritans. To be sure, there is a wide variety of experiences and traditions present in this small list -- three happen to be associated with Baptists, one with the Great Awakening, one with the Antinomian controversy, another with the Salem witch trials, and another as a pioneer of religious freedom -- but they share a common heritage. Our purpose here is to examine the events and background out of which Puritanism grew.
"Puritan" was the nickname first applied to those who wished to purify the Church of England of its unscriptural practices. The Puritan movement to reform the Anglican Church mainly came about during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The three main factors contributing to the rise of Puritanism were the Bible in the vernacular, the theology of the Protestant Reformation, and the Protestant persecutions under Mary Tudor. These are reflected in the high regard the Puritans had for the Bible and expository preaching, their theological emphases, and their sense of spiritual kinship with England's Protestant martyrs (shown by the popularity of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments -- commonly known as the Book of Martyrs -- among them).
The Puritans had objections to several of the practices of the Church of England. They pursued three primary goals: the purification of worship in the English Church, the right administration of the sacraments, and discipline within the church. Among the things they abhorred were vestments for the clergy, the prayer book, keeping saints' days, problems with the administration of communion and baptism, hierarchical church government, and the general lack of church discipline. Many had sincere hopes of reforming the church from the inside. However, despite fervent attempts (and a near success in the 1562-1563 convocation of the church), they did not succeed during Elizabeth's reign. Her approach to the religion of England was to discourage both Roman Catholicism as well as movements to reform the Anglican Church. Religious meetings apart from the established church were forbidden.
When Elizabeth died in 1603, many Puritans had hopes that her successor and nephew, James I (VI of Scotland), might be disposed toward their interests, since Presbyterianism (rooted in the same Reformed tradition as Puritanism) had become strong in his native land. They met him at the famous Hampton Roads conference, armed with the Millenary Petition, which stated their desires. But instead of agreeing with the Puritans, James, who had decided to support the Church of England, did not comply with the pleas for reform. The only profitable result of the Puritan dialogue with King James was a new translation of the Bible, now known as the King James Version, which first appeared in 1611.
I hope this small article has whetted your appetite or at least caught your attention. Maybe you are interested, but don't have the time to read much about the subject right now. There are a couple of websites I would like to recommend to you (and to anyone interested in learning more about the Puritans). They are the Fire and Ice website (http://www.puritansermons.com) and the Puritan links at the Hall of Church History (http://www.gty.org/~phil/puritans.htm). There are many books available on this subject as well.