TOPIC I: PROTESTANT ROOTS OF AMERICAN CULTURE
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THEME: Although diverse religious influences
have shaped American culture, the dominant tradition has been Protestant Christianity.
This topic provides an overview of how traditional
Catholic Christianity was
transformed by the Protestant Reformation in the early modern period when Europeans settled the Americas.
Points to remember:
 | Christianity is the most general term to
denote all groups based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
 | The three main groups are
Roman Catholic,
Protestant, and
Orthodox
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| Before the 16th century, Christianity
was Catholic (Latin) in western and central Europe and Orthodox (Greek
or Slavic) in eastern Europe. Both were
variations on traditional classical Christianity.
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| In the 16th century Catholic
(Latin)
Christianity was split by the Protestant
Reformation. Eastern Orthodoxy was not affected.
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I. BACKGROUND
Read Marty, chapter 4
Traditional Christianity: Cultus, Creed, Community: What are the main features
of traditional Christianity?
| Christian Myth: Creation, Fall, Redemption
| Christ:: "The Second Adam" |
| Logos and Incarnation |
| Atonement: Sacrifice of the Cross |
| Resurrection and Second Coming |
| Kingdom of God & the End Time: Now and Not Yet |
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| Consecration of Nature
| Sacramental System |
| Church as the Body of Christ |
| Economy of Salvation |
| Priesthood and Laity |
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| Consecration of Time
| Sacred History |
| Scripture |
| Liturgy
 | Liturgical Cycle |
| Popular Devotions: Cult of Saints and Pilgrimages |
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| Christendom: Ideal of Community
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Age of Renaissance & Reformation: Emergence of the Modern World
| Late Medieval Crisis and the Tradition of Renewal and Reform
| Ecclesia Semper Reformanda (The Church Always in
Need of Reform) |
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| The Renaissance,
Intellectual Challenge & the Reform Impulse: Ad Fontes! (To the
Sources!) |
| Competitive Dynastic States (link
to my Core 4 lecture for more background) |
| Emergence of World Market |
| Roots of American Religious Pluralism
| Splintering of Traditional Christianity in the West (Read Marty, chap. 4)
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| Reformation: Age of Upheaval (1517-1648)Note
the wealth of material at the BBC's site on the Reformation.
| Protestants, Catholics, and Reshaping of Traditional Christianity
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| English Christianity, 1520-1620
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II. ERRAND INTO THE WILDERNESS
Read Marty, chapter 5
Cherry, Part 1, pp. 61-53
English Protestantism in the New World: City on a Hill
| PLANTINGS: 17th century Virginia, New England, & In Between
| How important were Puritanism & the
New England
Way? |
| Unity and Diversity: Note how Marty (chap. 5)
stresses the differences between Virginia, New England, and the Middle Colonies.
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| PURITAN SPIN ON THE PROTESTANT PERSPECTIVE
| Conversion Experience
| Hearts pierced by the Word: "They whose hearts are pierced by the ministry of the
word they are carried with love and respect to the ministers of it."
(Thomas
Hooker
(1586-1647), Repentant Sinners and Their Ministers) |
| Transformed Personalities |
| Thomas Shepard as a Case History of the Puritan Experience
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| Emanuel College, Cambridge, 1620s (3rd generation of English Protestantism) |
| Pattern of his conversion experience (See
excerpts in the Shepard document.)
Note that his account, in both form and
images, is like a sexual seduction;
(note male and female images)
| The Way Down |
| The Pit |
| Stumbling out and up |
| Acceptance of grace and the Covenant; he saw God's mercy as free and
himself as passive in coming to Christ. He also saw Christ as his antithesis. he also saw
that he was elected for this gift of becoming completed united to his antithesis. (Again,
note the sexual imagery.) |
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| Puritan Theology to Fit the Experience: The major Protestant theologian
for Puritans was John
Calvin, although they drew on others as well.
| Justification and Sanctification (See John Cotton
document on the Covenant of Grace.)
| Divine Sovereignty and Will |
| Human Depravity & God's Grace |
| Separation of Nature and Grace:This is perhaps the most important
Protestant departure from traditional Christianity. (See Consecration
of Nature) |
| The Elect & Predestination: See the
Calvin
document..
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| Covenant & Community of Saints (See
Winthrop & Wigglesworth in Cherry.)
| A person, once convinced of being touched by grace, made a
covenant with God and a covenant with other saints to gather into a church. For them the
church was not everyone within a parish boundary but rather those who had the experience
of grace. Thus the Puritans saw themselves as apart from the rest of society, a vanguard
called to lead the way towards God's kingdom. |
| The Church
for a people of covenant.
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| Vocation (calling) and Mission
| Calling was an important part of the Puritan experience. It is
remarkable that although they believed in predestination, once
convinced they were favored
with God grace, they were relentlessly activist. |
| God and Humankind as active forces in history (See
Whitaker in Cherry) |
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| Eschatology & Millennialism
(See Edwards in Cherry) |
| Puritan
Resources |
| Cotton Mather Home Page |
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III. RELIGIOUS CHALLENGES TO SOCIAL ORDER
Read Marty, chapter 6
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