Puritan Religious Beliefs

Puritanism is a branch of the Church of England that primarily settled in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony in the 1620s with the mission of reforming the Anglican Church. Socially, the
Puritans differed from the Anglicans’ orthodox beliefs of alcohol consumption and paganrelated practices; religiously, the Puritans called for change in the structure and abolishment of certain traditions in the Anglican Church; ideologically, the Puritans demonstrated their unique way of thinking with their idea of their “City on a Hill;” therefore, the Puritans professed change, rather than following the orthodox beliefs of the Church of England.
The Puritans inspired social change through alcohol use and the abolishment of certain paganbased rituals and practices.
As historian Perry Miller and research professor Thomas H.
Johnson argue, the Puritans consumed “what seem to us prodigious quantities of alcoholic beverages, with never the slightest inkling that they were doing anything sinful,” while the
Anglicans would consider this an act against God (Miller and Johnson 41). This was a social ammendment the Puritans made to the traditional, Anglican belief. As historian David D. Hall states, the English also had a number of practices that the Puritans deemed as “‘pagan’ ways and
‘superstitions’ [that were] occurring at the same time as the pace of social change was weakening folkways and ritual practices” (Hall 55). In the Puritans quest to reform the Anglican Church, they decided to remove all beliefs that were not native to the Christianity, such as the ritual calendar.
The Puritans represented religious change by removing old customs and altering the structure of the church. Hall explains that the Puritans were “ready to eliminate old customs and to liberalize the structure of the church” (Hall 55). The goal of the Puritans was to bring about change in the Anglican Church where they saw fit.
As Reverend Richard Howland Maxwell illustrates, the Puritans sought to bring change to the most important aspects in the structure of the
Anglican Church such as “the Bible, not the church hierarchy, to be the ultimate authority . . . and an active clergy who carried out some teaching as well as purely liturgical functions” (Maxwell 3).
These fundamental changes to the faith are why the Puritans called for a reform.
The Puritan's ideological views of individuality and logic was original and fresh when compared to the orthodox thinking of the English. As Miller and Johnson state, “the Puritans acquired their special quality and their essential individuality from their stand on the points at issue” (Miller and Johnson 45). This new way of thinking was unique to the Puritans because the
Anglican Church did not promote people’s individuality. As Maxwell explains, the Puritan
“movement was one of the intellectually best equipped in history; and they prevailed in their reformation through the force of their logic expressed in dynamic Elizabeth English” (Maxwell 2).
This logic and unique thought is the reason why the Puritans assumed that they were the ideal,
Christian utopia
known as the “City on a Hill.”
The fact cannot be overlooked that the Puritans practiced orthodox, political ideas.
Maxwell explains that “both Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth perceived themselves as purely
English colonies, subject to English law and loyal to the English monarch” (Maxwell 3). Miller and Johnson show that the Puritans “were just as patriotic as Englishmen who remained at home.
They hated Spain like poison, and France only a little less” (Miller and Johnson 46). It can be deduced that the Puritans then believed that they were still part of England’s monarchy and shared the same enemies as England. Although the Puritans viewed themselves as politically part of
England, their social, religious, and ideological aspects explicitly show how they inspired change from the Church of England and in turn creating Puritanism.