John Winthrop
Lecture Notes
Biography Notes
- Puritan
- Great Migration = 1630
- Bible commonwealth in New England
- Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Winthrop was their leader
- Elected governor of the colony
- “Winthrop’s political creed was based on the Calvinist axiom that all mankind was corrupted
by the original sin of Adam.”
- “He was convinced that America was a land where God’s vice-regents on earth
were divinely appointed to maintain law.”
- Seen as harsh and autocratic
-- government by a single person having unlimited power
- Began journal in 1630 and continued to his death in 1649
- A first-hand account!
- Style is measured and judicial
- Style reflects ordered mind of author
- Desire to tell the plain truth
- “It reveals Puritan attitudes toward women and the world of commerce.”
- “It shows the Puritans’ need to find divine sanction for their acts and shows
their craving for evidence of a divine purpose in even the trivial events of
their daily life.”
Puritan Principles
- Hard Work, Independence, Moral Strength
- Major forces in shaping the American Revolution and in the growth of the new
nation
- Still remain dominant elements in the cultural heritage of the American
people
Theology Notes
- See Table / Pilgrims vs. Puritans
- Strongly Calvinistic -- distinction between the ELECT and the DAMNED
- Predestination and Election
- Puritans were among the Elect
- Proof of Election -- give an account of your conversion
- Original Sin -- committed by Adam and Eve
- Salvation -- Given by God (Grace) vs. Good Works (Earned)
- Covenant of Works -- people are to be obedient and do good works -- Adam
- Covenant of Grace -- a special few were chosen to escape eternal damnation and
the Puritans believes that they were among that special few, the elect -- also a
promise to Abraham giving human beings the ability to struggle towards
perfection
Vocabulary
- Divers =diverse or several
- Wants = lacks
- Rent = split
- Stay = keep
- Viz. = namely
General Discussion Questions
- Is this literature? (A
Sermon. A Journal.)
- How would you describe your reading experience?
- What is your sense of John Winthrop the person?
- Why is John Winthrop important for us to read today?
A MODEL OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY / Reading Notes
- A sermon
- Organized into (1) theory, (2) application, (3) conclusion / fear /
commitment
- The “Context” for His Preaching / Historical Information
- They were on a boat, headed for a New World, not sure of what they would
find, thought to be crazy by people in England, thought to be doomed to failure,
wanted change and for their ideals to come true
- Believed themselves to be like the Jews being led by Moses out of slavery in
Egypt into the Promised Land (Canaan) -- both certain they worshipped the one
true God, both fled from oppression, both suffered for their religious beliefs,
leaders led followers out of bondage, believed they were a chosen people,
specially favored by God, idea of a promised land -- i.e. New England, New Eden,
New World Jerusalem
- Ideals of a harmonious Christian community.
- They would stand as an example to the world.
- The ideal of a perfectly selfless community was impossible.
- Study the Verbal Cues
- Two Parts -- Theory / Application.
- Numbers.
- Forecasts.
- Transitions.
- Repetitions.
- Questions, Answers, Objections.
THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WINTHROP / Reading Notes
- Sign / symbolism = snake = devil = mouse kills snake
- Sign / symbolism = snake = devil = man kills snake
- Sign / symbolism = book-eating mice
- Sign = ordering of fast brings about good weather
- Missionaries to the Indians / conversions
- Indian Problems = one man killed
- Trouble = Roger Williams
- Trouble = Anne Hutchinson
- Taught the doctrine of the Inner Light
- The elect were in direct communication with God and need not heed church laws
- Antinomianism = “opposition to divine laws”
- Antinomianism = “the doctrine or belief that the Gospel frees Christians from
obedience to any law, whether scriptural, civil, or moral, and that salvation is
attained solely through faith and divine grace” (AHCD)
- Thus, she criticized ministers for not preaching a covenant of free grace
- Anabaptist information
- False principles and rules for trading
- Mention of insane woman -- caused by reading and writing
- Mention of witchcraft / trial / execution
THE JOURNAL / More Reading Notes
- Does the Journal seem to “contradict” the Sermon?
- Reference to making things look good back in England
- No Place for Opposing Opinions
- Roger Williams
- “the infection”
- Excommunication
- Leader being accused of wrong-doing is acquitted
- The Troublemakers
- Roger Williams -- eventually founded Providence Plantation in Rhode
Island in 1644
- Anne Hutchinson -- an antinomian
- The Providences
- Self-serving interpretations of God’s hand in everyday events
- The mouse and the snake fight
- Anne Hutchinson’s miscarriage
- The Earthquake
- Anne Hutchinson’s death
- The References to Indians
- Financial settlement with the natives
- European disease kills natives
- Indians raid and kill and burn
- References to Nature
- “like the smell of a garden” = Eden?
Winthrop & Bradford
1.) Compare Winthrop’s lay sermon, “A MODEL OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY” to the
Pilgrims’ “MAYFLOWER COMPACT,” noting:
- The brevity of the Pilgrims’ “Mayflower Compact” (fewer than 200 words)
compared to Winthrop’s lengthy “Model of Christian Charity” (nearly 6000 words
in its complete form)
- That both emphasize the covenant idea and the need to band together,
subordinating individual interests to the good of the community
- That both are social compacts that seek to preserve the status quo and
minority rule
2.) Winthrop reports a number of PROVIDENCES, among them the combat between the
mouse and the snake; Anne Hutchinson’s being “delivered of a monstrous
birth”; the destruction of “the common prayer” by the mice; and the appearance
of the snake in the midst of the church service.
3.) They show the Puritan impulse to find the will of God revealed
in the least as well as the greatest events of the world.
Such events anticipate the 19th century romantic view that even the
minutiae of nature could be read for moral truths.
Winthrop & “A City Upon a Hill”
1.) Winthrop used the phrase “CITY UPON A HILL” in arguing
that the errand of the Puritan colony at Massachusetts Bay was to reform
Christianity and serve as an example to the world.
Notice how this is different from the colonizing aims expressed by John
Smith
2.) Think about the idea of America in general and the United
States in particular as a “CITY UPON A HILL,” an example to the rest of the
world. Note the eventual
transformation of that idea from its emphasis on America as an example of
spiritual community to emphasis on the United States as a “beacon of political
freedom” and a land of material abundance
Winthrop & Society
1.) In “A Model of Christian Charity,” Winthrop
argues that unity and love are essential for the success of the Puritan
colony in the American wilderness
2.) The idea that the rights of the individual must be subordinated for the good
of the group, set forth in “A Model of Christian Charity,” conflicts with modern
American faith in the transcendent value of individualism, personal rights, and
freedom of action
3.) The men and women who established the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony
believed, as did most Europeans, that a hierarchical society was necessary for
the maintenance of a Christian community
4.) Winthrop says that the qualities to be desired in the rich and
“the great ones,” so that they do “not eat up the poor,” are “love, mercy,
gentleness, temperance.” Those to
be desired in the poor and despised, so that they do not “rise up against their
superiors and shake off their yoke,” are “faith, patience, obedience.” Is it accurate to say that he emphasizes as more essential for society
those submissive qualities deemed appropriate to the poor?
Winthrop & Williams
1.) Winthrop objected to ROGER WILLIAMS not only because WILLIAMS resisted
conventional Puritan doctrine but because, contrary to agreement, WILLIAMS
persisted in attempting to convert others to his view
2.) Both Winthrop and Bradford (of Plymouth) acknowledged that Williams had the
power to:
- Appear “Godly and zealous”
- Arouse in others an “apprehension of his godliness”
- Appeal to devout believers (“he
had so far prevailed”
Winthrop & Hutchinson
1.) Winthrop’s description of the ANNE HUTCHINSON controversy
reveals the union of civil and religious powers in 17th century Boston.
This union was based on the belief that civil magistrates were obliged to
protect religion just as they were obliged to protect orphans, widows, the weak,
the poor.
2.) Winthrop’s actions in the ANNE HUTCHINSON controversy have
been judged the least defensible of all his acts as a magistrate in colonial New
England. But some arguments can be
made in his behalf:
- Winthrop emphasized the need for cooperation and self-reliance and
argued that Christians must not ask God for help “by miraculous or
extraordinary means,” for the Puritans believed that the age of miracles and of direct
revelation had ended with the creation of the Bible, that no further revelation
would occur until the Second Coming, and that the only true guide to life and
religion was the Bible, the record of God’s word.
- In asserting the contrary idea of the primacy of direct divine revelation,
ANNE HUTCHINSON attacked the idea that the Bible should be the sole rule in life
and faith.
- In view of their beliefs, the Puritans felt that ANNE HUTCHINSON’S claim that
she received direct revelations from God was ANTINOMIAN, against the “law” of
the Bible, and that it furthermore showed a dangerous and perhaps satanic
self-glorification.
- ANNE HUTCHINSON argued that an individual’s external behavior
is no evidence of that individual’s salvation.
And her assertion of the primacy of divine revelation argued that the
individual should surrender his judgment and will to any promptings that he
believes are divine.
- Winthrop and the other magistrates, who were responsible for keeping public
order and protecting the interests of all, logically concluded that acceptance
of ANNE HUTCHINSON’S ideas would be dangerous for the community, dependent as it
was upon unity and cooperation.
Primary Source: The Prentice Hall Anthology of American Literature
Date Revised:
16 September 2010 10:40 AM