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American Culture and Identity: City on a Hill (Three main ideas…
American Culture and Identity: City on a Hill
Three main ideas
Massachusetts Bay Colony
conditions and outcomes
founded in 1630; Governor John Winthrop
700 religious exiles from England - PURITANS
like minded Christians w/ British style social structure
What happened?
colony survived
Emerson, Hawthorne & Thoreau come from MBC
1636: R. Williams' ideas of separation of state and church gets him expelled form Massachusetts
Founds Rhode Island: a place of religious freedom
inscribed into the Bill of Rights
Anne Hutchinson objected to community's focus on acts, not faith
Great Awakening (1730-50)
'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'
Enlightenment influence - Newton, Locke, etc.
universe is orderly, as God decreed
leads to slowly moving away from Puritanical belief
1730-40s
religious revivals by Whitehead, Edwards
Second Great Awakening (1790s-1850)
'Minister's Black Veil'
1820-1850 (strongest)
Mormonism founded in 1830-38 by Joseph Smith in Western New York state
Texts
Winthrop:
'A Model of Christian Charity'
motivation: economic and religious
basis: The Bible
scripture
government: liberal? + conservative
the collective over individual
CHARITY, UNITY, COMUNALISM
nuanced messages
both church and state
what's at stake?
everyone's eyes are at the settlers
a kind of Christian socialism
Edwards:
'Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God'
structure
point by point - logic
repetition
10 points (like the Bible)
sin is holding them down
imagery
snake mouth open
the fiery pit
the sword
open hand of God
psychic effects
fear
awe
guilt
PREDETERMINISM
Hawthorne:
'The Minister's Black Veil'
setting
Governor Belcher
at the time of the First Awakening
written in the Second Awakening
Hooper's sermon
veil
hiding true self
fear
Hooper's mildness
nothing terrible in what he says (in contrast to Edwards)
Parable
- a moral lesson though story
individual relationship w/ God
The alienation from the community
questions
'stop worrying about other's sins and tend to your own'?
mad scientist?
pride? vs. sacrificial?
what about the woman who died?
who is the victim of the veil? Elizabeth? Hooper? The woman?
a problem that shows Hooper his own frailty
What kind of Christianity?
'Calvinist' (reformed) theology
denies transubstantiation
biblical authority is inerrant
Predeterminism
unconditional election
salvation marked out by God from the beginning of time
individuals can do nothing to affect their salvation
a paradox?
American religiosity, compared two ways
half of Americans believe religion to be important
a lot of wealth, but also religion
somewhat contradicting