Puritan Dilemma Essay Example

The Puritan dilemma is a constant struggle inside one's self to follow through with the demands of the bible. John Winthrop throughout this monograph deals with many different types of situations in his life that challenges a Puritan. First John Winthrop must decipher if traveling to America is a mere ploy for him to rum away from the corruption of the church of England and the English government that he had recently came in contact with, or whether, the trip offers a chance to be an example to all men on how God wants his people to live. Once John Winthrop settled in Massachessetts the problems only grew for him. John Winthrop became the first governor. After he became governor John Winthrop faced a lot of different problems flowing from the puritan dilemma. The main question of the colony was how they were to be governed. The people obviously were not going to want a king or anything related to England. This is when the puritan concept of the "covenant" with God came into to play. So like always John Winthrop as every other puritan of the time resorted to the Holy Bible for the guidance they were looking for. John Winthrop later in the novel had another great problem on his hands in the character Roger Williams. Roger Williams was a member of the puritan congregation that personally believed that it was neccassary for every member of the puritan church not only to make a public declaration of the repentance for having communion with the churches of England but to also to renounce the church all together. Roger Williams felt as though this was sufficient to have banished that churches errors from the Puritan congregation. John Winthrop obviously did not agree with this theory, Winthrop saw that taking this stance would only promote the puritan people the withdrawing further and further away from the world. John Winthrop felt if people distance themselves from the world then how can they change it. In the monograph it was evident from the beginning