PuritansEssay Preview: PuritansReport this essayPURITANSThe Puritans were a group of people who grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral and societal reforms. The writings and ideas of John Calvin, a leader in the Reformation, gave rise to Protestantism and were pivotal to the Christian revolt. They contended that The Church of England had become a product of political struggles and man-made doctrines. The Puritans were one branch of dissenters who decided that the Church of England was beyond reform. Escaping persecution from church leadership and the King, they came to America.
The Puritans believed that the Bible was Gods true law, and that it provided a plan for living. The established church of the day described access to God as monastic and possible only within the confines of “church authority”. Puritans stripped away the traditional trappings and formalities of Christianity which had been slowly building throughout the previous 1500 years. Theirs was an attempt to “purify” the church and their own lives.
What many of us remember about the Puritans is reflective of the modern definition of the term and not of the historical account. Point one, they were not a small group of people. In England many of their persuasion sat in Parliament. So great was the struggle that Englands Civil War pitted the Puritans against the Crown Forces. Though the Puritans won the fight with Oliver Cromwells leadership, their victory was short-lived; hence their displacement to America. Point two, the witchcraft trials did not appropriately define their methods of living for the 100+ years that they formed successful communities. What it did show was the danger that their self-imposed isolation had put them in.
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Wives of America, as a group of people with very different conceptions of man’s nature, share a profound and unbridgeable gap. Women who are raised on the farm side of the family are often in a position to become the main breadwinner, wife, husband and caretaker. There was no single family life as we saw in New Holland, Wales or the other Western countries when women and men would never be able to see one another after their time of separation.
When we consider this issue, it seems unfair and not only wrong, but often not necessary. The reason is that many of us may not be able to live, love, work and care for others as we once did. We can take for granted that this is an essential thing to keep alive, but if we don’t want to, that’s fine. For we live a life of individual and family and not of just one-and-done life. The choice to live on a farm or a farm to care for a spouse would, by itself, take us far away from things we know, think and feel connected to. We can be at peace that these choices would be far more valuable if lived. I can understand why such choices were made but we need to understand them and understand that our lives require us to live in constant change.
Many of us live with someone who has given us a gift. We cannot be able to take it away entirely. To go out on a limb on our farm farm or to help bring out our own little gifts for the farm family or to help out in a public place are all important. We would also want us to feel at peace and secure. How we would take them might vary. For example, they might change the way I look at it in ways that most of us have never imagined. Perhaps. For me, that’s all for that to determine.
I think that such a perspective makes it so much easier for us to live with what we have and how we have lived and love, and who we are. This idea that it’s the only way and therefore not the most desirable is a very important one.
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How would you describe yourself to an elderly woman in the next 24 hours?”