John Winthrop

Lecture Notes

 

Biography Notes

 

Puritan Principles

 

Theology Notes

 

Vocabulary

 

General Discussion Questions

 

A MODEL OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY / Reading Notes

 

THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WINTHROP / Reading Notes

 

THE JOURNAL / More Reading Notes

 

Winthrop & Bradford

1.) Compare Winthrop’s lay sermon, “A MODEL OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY” to the Pilgrims’ “MAYFLOWER COMPACT,” noting:

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:

 

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:

 

Primary Source: The Prentice Hall Anthology of American Literature

Date Revised: 16 September 2010 10:40 AM