Definitions of Puritanism

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Historians have produced and worked with a number of definitions of Puritanism, in an unresolved debate on the nature of the Puritan movement of the 16th and 17th century. There are some historians who are prepared to reject the term for historical use. [1] John Spurr argues that changes in the terms of membership of the Church of England, in 1604–6, 1626, 1662, and also 1689, led to re-definitions of the word "Puritan". [2] Basil Hall, citing Richard Baxter. considers that "Puritan" dropped out of contemporary usage in 1642, with the outbreak of the First English Civil War, being replaced by more accurate religious terminology. [3] Current literature on Puritanism supports two general points: Puritans were identifiable in terms of their general culture, by contemporaries, which changed over time; and they were not identified by theological views alone.

Church of England Anglican church in England, by law established

The Church of England is the established church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor. The Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the third century, and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury.

Richard Baxter English Puritan church leader, poet, and hymn-writer

Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymnodist, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long and prolific career as theological writer. After the Restoration he refused preferment, while retaining a non-separatist Presbyterian approach, and became one of the most influential leaders of the Nonconformists, spending time in prison. His views on justification and sanctification are somewhat controversial and unconventional within the Calvinist tradition because his teachings seem, to some, to undermine salvation by faith, in that he emphasizes the necessity of repentance and faithfulness.

First English Civil War Civil war in England 1642–1646

The First English Civil War (1642–1646) began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War. "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War (1648–1649) and the Third English Civil War (1649–1651). The wars in England were part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, being fought contemporaneously with equivalents in Scotland and Ireland.

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To the 1620s

Historians now generally reject the idea that before the 1620s and the influence of Arminianism in the Church of England there were significant differences in doctrine between English Puritans in general, and other English Protestants. Puritans were in practice known as "zealous Calvinists" fond of preaching. [4] For this reason a term sometimes preferred is "Hot Protestantism": i.e. one approach to Puritanism is to regard it simply as Protestant belief, intensely held. [5]

Arminianism based on theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic supporters

Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. His teachings held to the five solae of the Reformation, but they were distinct from particular teachings of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and other Protestant Reformers. Jacobus Arminius was a student of Theodore Beza at the Theological University of Geneva. Arminianism is known to some as a soteriological diversification of Calvinism; to others, Arminianism is a reclamation of early Church theological consensus.

Separatist groups

Numerous, generally small, Calvinist dissenting groups and sects are classified as broad-sense Puritans. These separating Puritans fit more comfortably into the history of denominations than do the bulk of Puritans who remained within the Church of England (non-separating Puritans).

Scripture alone

William Ames provided a self-definition of Puritans via three points, in 1610. [6] Point 3 is sola scriptura .

William Ames English Protestant divine, philosopher, and controversialist

William Ames was an English Protestant divine, philosopher, and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the Calvinists and the Arminians.

Sola Scriptura is a theological doctrine held by some Christian denominations that the Christian scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice.

It has been argued that Puritans adopted the Calvinist regulative principle of worship. The laxer normative principle of worship was characteristic of the Church of England. [7] The Puritans took the side of Calvin and the Zwinglians, against Philip Melanchthon, in this early contentious debate of the Protestant Reformation. [8]

Regulative principle of worship

The regulative principle of worship is a Christian doctrine, held by some Calvinists and Anabaptists, that God commands churches to conduct public services of worship using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in scripture, and conversely, that God prohibits any and all other practices in public worship. The doctrine further determines these affirmed elements to be those set forth in scripture by express commands or examples, or if not expressed, those which are implied logically by good and necessary consequence. The regulative principle thus provides a governing concept of worship as obedience to God, identifies the set of specific practical elements constituting obedient worship, and identifies and excludes disobedient practices.

The normative principle of worship is a Christian theological principle that teaches that worship in the Church can include those elements that are not prohibited by Scripture. The normative principle teaches that whatever is not prohibited in Scripture is permitted in worship, as long as it is agreeable to the peace and unity of the Church. In short, there must be agreement with the general practice of the Church and no prohibition in Scripture for whatever is done in worship.

Philip Melanchthon German reformer

Philip Melanchthon was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems. He stands next to Luther and John Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and moulder of Protestantism.

Elizabethan Puritanism

Patrick Collinson states that "puritan" and "papist" were not "taxonomic definitions" in the Elizabethan period. [9]

Patrick "Pat" Collinson was an English historian, known as a writer on the Elizabethan era, particularly Elizabethan Puritanism. He was emeritus Regius Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge, having occupied the chair from 1988 to 1996. He once described himself as "an early modernist with a prime interest in the history of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."

Papist historical and derogatory name for Roman Catholics or Catholicism

Popery is a pejorative term used to label the Roman Catholic Church, its teachings, practices and adherents. However, in early use it was not always considered offensive, as the term could refer to a partisan backing the side of the pope on a particular issue. In English the word gained currency during the English Reformation, as it was used to denote a person whose loyalties were to the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, rather than to the Church of England. First used in 1522, papist derives from Latin papa, meaning "pope".

Jacobean Puritanism and conforming Puritans

The approach taken by King James led to the absorption of many conforming Puritans into the Church of England of the time. [10] Collinson has discussed a moderate Puritanism, as contrasted to an extreme Puritanism that demanded presbyterianism in church polity. [11] Ferrell argues that conforming Puritanism was at the same time part of a theological consensus, and in terms of church polity a target of the sustained and divisive Jacobean polemical campaign against further reform. [12] These definitions contrast with others, less precise in period, that on the one hand identified Puritans closely with presbyterians, as in Perry Miller, or with the whole gamut of presbyterian and Independent believers. [13]

Presbyterianism Branch of Protestant Christianity in which the church is governed by presbyters (elders)

Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism, which traces its origins to Britain, particularly Scotland.

Perry Gilbert Eddy Miller was an American intellectual historian and professor and a co-founder of the field of American Studies. Miller specialized in the history of early America, and took an active role in a revisionist view of the colonial Puritan theocracy that was cultivated at Harvard beginning in the 1920s. Heavy drinking led to a premature death age fifty-eight. "Perry Miller was a great historian of Puritanism but the dark conflicts of the Puritan mind eroded his own mental stability."

In English church history, Independents advocated local congregational control of religious and church matters, without any wider geographical hierarchy, either ecclesiastical or political. Independents reached particular prominence between 1642 and 1660, in the period of the English Civil War and of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, wherein the Parliamentary Army became the champion of Independent religious views against the Anglicanism or the Catholicism of Royalists and the Presbyterianism favoured by Parliament itself. The Independents advocated freedom of religion for non-Catholics.

Francis Bacon criticised Puritans for their over-strict judgements on adiaphora. [14] On the other hand, Hill gives examples of conforming Puritans who did not object to set forms of worship. [15] Towards the end of King James's reign Marco Antonio de Dominis analysed the views of the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church, concluding that, excepting the views of the Puritans, they were at root compatible. He did make a further qualification, about the extreme Calvinism of some of the bishops. [16]

Semi-separatism

The enforcement of a degree of religious uniformity also led to the formation of "semi-separated" clergy. This kind of semi-separatism relied on niches where Puritan clergy could find employment. These niches, however, are not easily classified. [17]

Lay Puritanism

Lay patrons of Puritanism were prominent in the middle years of the reign of Elizabeth I. [18] Godly gentlemen, the so-called Puritan gentry, then became a significant factor in English life and politics. Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon was a renowned member of the godly nobility. [19]

From the 1620s

After about 1620 there arose clear theological points at issue between English Puritans and other English Protestants. The future colonist Emmanuel Downing wrote to James Ussher in 1620 asking that the king should provide a definition. [20] There were also taxonomies of Puritanism offered. Joseph Mede in 1623 divided Puritans into: (a) ecclesiastical Puritans (the originals); (b) moral Puritans; and (c) political Puritans. [21] Henry Parker in his Discourse Concerning Puritans (1641) distinguished also the religious dogmatic Puritan. [22]

Doctrinal Puritanism

The native English strand of Arminianism defined Calvinism as "doctrinal Puritanism". This view gained some support from King James. [23] Thomas Fuller reported that De Dominis used "Puritan" to mean "anti-Arminian". [24] William Laud took up the topic of doctrinal Puritanism in 1624. [25] Hill's book Society and Puritanism is directed towards the concerns of doctrinal Puritans, and their lay appeal. [26]

Puritan casuistry and Puritan legacy

Hall proposes Puritan casuistry as a "common denominator" of types of Puritan that is of value to historians, and also was inherited by later nonconformists. More specifically, he points to "cases of conscience", and sermons preached on them. The Cripplegate Lectures were one vehicle by which this tradition was passed on. Hall gives also the example of The Practice of Piety, by Lewis Bayly, as representative, and influential on Pietism. [27]

New England Puritanism

The cultural form of Puritanism that was a major influence in the development of New England is admitted by historians to be problematic in its definition. At the time of emigration around 1630 it was no different from English Puritanism in general; by 1650 religious differentiation in New England was quite marked, and the New England branch of Puritanism had also evolved in its distinctive way. In denominational terms New England Puritanism has been identified with early congregationalism. The "New England mind", however, about which Perry Miller wrote in connection with "Puritan culture", has been subject to extensive revisionism, as has earlier work in this field. [28]

Notes

  1. Crawford Gribben (16 August 2007). God's Irishmen:Theological Debates in Cromwellian Ireland: Theological Debates in Cromwellian Ireland. Oxford University Press. pp. 205 note 52. ISBN   978-0-19-532531-7 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  2. John Spurr (15 October 1998). English Puritanism, 1603-1689. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 4. ISBN   978-0-333-60189-1 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  3. Hall, p. 245.
  4. J. T. Cliffe, The Puritan Gentry: The Great Puritan Families of Early Stuart England, Routledge & Kegan Paul (1984), p. 2.
  5. J. Garnett (2 August 2003). Revival and Religion Since 1700: Essays for John Walsh. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 202–. ISBN   978-1-85285-093-7 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  6. Keith L. Sprunger (1982). Dutch Puritanism: A History of English and Scottish Churches of the Netherlands in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. BRILL. p. 458. ISBN   978-90-04-06793-6 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  7. Ligon Duncan; J. Matthew Pinson (1 March 2009). Perspectives on Christian Worship: 5 Views. B&H Publishing Group. p. 9. ISBN   978-0-8054-4099-7 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  8. Alan Richardson; John Stephen Bowden (1983). New Dictionary of Christian Theology. Hymns Ancient & Modern Limited. p. 490. ISBN   978-0-334-02208-4 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  9. Collinson, Patrick. "Elizabeth I". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8636.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  10. Daniel W. Doerksen (1997). Conforming to the Word: Herbert, Donne, and the English Church Before Laud. Bucknell University Press. p. 20. ISBN   978-0-8387-5334-7 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  11. Clayton Roberts (1996). Logic of Hist. Explanation - Ppr. Penn State University Press. p. 229. ISBN   978-0-271-01443-2 . Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  12. Lori Anne Ferrell, Government by Polemic: James I, the King's Preachers, and the Rhetorics of Conformity, 1603-1625, Stanford University Press (1998), p.9.
  13. Margo Todd (7 November 2002). Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order. Cambridge University Press. p. 10 note 25. ISBN   978-0-521-89228-5 . Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  14. Catherine Gimelli Martin (30 November 2010). Milton Among the Puritans: The Case for Historical Revisionism. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 138. ISBN   978-1-4094-0856-7 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  15. Hill, p. 19.
  16. Peter Lake; Michael C. Questier (2000). Conformity and Orthodoxy in the English Church, C. 1560-1660. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 168–9. ISBN   978-0-85115-797-9 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  17. John Spurr (15 October 1998). English Puritanism, 1603-1689. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 65. ISBN   978-0-333-60189-1 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  18. Colin Pendrill (30 October 2008). OCR History A, as: Church and State 1529-89. Pearson Education. p. 180. ISBN   978-0-435-31260-2 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  19. Paul E. J. Hammer (24 June 1999). The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585-1597. Cambridge University Press. p. 31. ISBN   978-0-521-43485-0 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  20. Hill, p. 21.
  21. Jonathan D. Moore (2007). English Hypothetical Universalism: John Preston and the Softening of Reformed Theology. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 23 note 91. ISBN   978-0-8028-2057-0 . Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  22. Michael Mendle (1 November 2003). Henry Parker and the English Civil War: The Political Thought of the Public's 'Privado'. Cambridge University Press. p. 53. ISBN   978-0-521-52131-4 . Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  23. Matthew Reynolds (2005). Godly Reformers and Their Opponents in Early Modern England: Religion in Norwich C. 1560-1643. Boydell Press. p. 7. ISBN   978-1-84383-149-5 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  24. Hall, pp. 244–5.
  25. Margo Todd (1995). Reformation to Revolution: Politics and Religion in Early Modern England. Taylor & Francis Group. p. 67. ISBN   978-0-415-09692-8 . Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  26. Hill, p. 30.
  27. Hall, p. 254.
  28. Alden T. Vaughan (1972). ThePuritan Tradition in America: 1620-1730. UPNE. pp. xi–xxvi. ISBN   978-0-87451-852-8 . Retrieved 20 November 2012.

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