Preacher Or Actor: the Dramatic Role of Puritan Sermons in America Beth Robbins
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Undergraduate Review Volume 1 Article 13 2004 Preacher or Actor: The Dramatic Role of Puritan Sermons in America Beth Robbins Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev Part of the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Robbins, Beth (2004). Preacher or Actor: The Dramatic Role of Puritan Sermons in America. Undergraduate Review, 1, 49-56. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev/vol1/iss1/13 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Copyright © 2004 Beth Robbins Preacher or Actor: The Dramatic Role of Puritan Sermons in America by Beth Robbins he Puritans settled into Massachusetts Bay in 1630 un T der John Winthrop in response to religious restrictions presented to them in England. While they did not necessar ily intend to break: away from the Church of England, the distance between these New Englanders and their original church affiliations could reap no other result. They retained their Calvinist beliefs in the power of God to save the "elect" and eternally damn others, and they dedicated their Beth Robbins is currently a senior double major in Elemen lives to working towards achieving a state of grace with tary Education and English from God. These founding settlers set the standard for future Holden, MA. She wrote the paper generations. John Winthrop described America as a "city for Ann Brunjes's Early Ameri upon a hill," since many people in England believed that can Literature Class in Spring the Puritans, and all those who fled England, would fail in 2004. Following graduation she America and were watching the new communities closely. plans to teach overseas before Ever mindful of England's constantly scrutinizing eye, pursuing graduate work in ESL. the Puritans would strive for nothing short of excellence. The paper came to be because Conversion to Christianity and a life dedicated to proclaim Dr. Brunjes both made the ing the works of God became the heart and soul of Puritan Puritans intriguing and seemed doctrine, and elaborating these principles throughout two sure noone else would be so interested in studying them. generations were ministers such as Thomas Hooker, In crease Mather, and Jonathan Edwards. The words of these three men vibrated in the hearts of their congregations from 50 The Undergraduate Review the early seventeenth century and through previously misled citizens, he persevered in the better part of the eighteenth century, and gaining both political and religious influence the terrifying dramatic presentation of these by strictly directing the daily routines of his exquisitely crafted sermons still provokes followers in the ways of Puritan founders. questions of morality and faith in contem His commanding presence and confident porary readers. These evangelical preachers preaching earned him the trust of the com used their religious outlet of sermons to not munity, thus reinforcing his authority. only preach the word of God, but also to As the Great Awakening dawned at assert their own intellect, wit, and learning, the tum of the century, conventional preach which have cemented their place in Ameri ers were replaced with scientific theorists can sentimental literature. and Enlightenment ideals. One of the last Thomas Hooker was born in 1586 in attempts at a Puritan contingency came from Leistershire, England. He was educated at Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was born in Queen's College in Cambridge, and en 1703, in East Windsor, Connecticut, the only tered the teaching profession as a minister. male child of eleven. He was a third gen However, despite his estimable reputation eration minister, the grandson of Solomon as a minister, Hooker was forced into early Stoddard, one of the most influential and in retirement for being "one of the most con dependent Puritan ministers of Northampton spicuous leaders of Puritan sentiment in the (Baym 464). Edwards studied at home and land" (Miller 290). In England, his strict at Yale College, where he focused his stud Puritan teachings posed a threat to the estab ies on theology. He discovered a deep love lished Anglican Church and, in effect, to the of religious theories, and longed to share government as well. So he took his Puritan his recognition of the importance of reli ideals to New England, where he proved gious commitment with the public. Edwards himself to be one of Connecticut's most "managed to tend to his duties as pastor or eloquent preachers (Miller 290). Though a growing congregation and deliver brilliant his styIe and theories were not embraced by sermons, to write some of his most impor the Anglican Church, Hooker was able to tant books...and watch his eleven children express his arguments to the more accepting grown up" (Baym 465). While skillfully New England congregations as the Puritan balancing his home life and religious career, movement waved across the New World. he was also able to adapt to the changing At the conclusion of Hooker's career, needs of his congregation. With the dawn of more and more ministers of the Puritan the Great Awakening, Edwards was finally world were grasping the opportunity to use able to fully proclaim the need of the people their place at the pulpit to move the hearts to return to the conventional authority of the and minds of congregations. Increase Mather church. Ironically, however, his preaching was one such minister. A second generation methods were far from conventional. While New Englander and minister, Mather had he believed the church was the complete humbler beginnings than his British-born authority in a community, he used non-tra predecessors. Mather received a free edu ditional, dictating styles of preaching to cation in Boston and attended Harvard in deliver this message. 1651. He managed to travel to England to Hooker, Mather, and Edwards both study and practice the ministry from 1656 embody and contrast the Puritan beliefs. to 1661, but he returned to America to teach While their words and messages are con at Second Church. Even though Mather's tracted directly from the Bible, their actions ministry was met with opposing policies and and deliverances are less than pure. These The Undergraduate Review 51 men were undoubtedly well-educated and authority for themselves in their communi devout Christians. They believed in the word ties. They considered themselves successful of God so strongly they could think of noth by the size and response of their following ing else. However, conventional methods of rather than the convictions in the hearts of conveying this unprecedented faith were not the people. So, while they claimed to preach the most effective. The sermonists' compul the word of God in such a way as to benefit sion to enforce conversion is what led to the the people, the material remuneration of a creation of their religious literature. Their position of authority were also no less ap resulting sermons were a combination of pealing to these Christian men than to any literary genius, manipulative tact, dramatic other community leader. effect, Scriptural references, and fanatical In an attempt to prove the validity Christian beliefs. They were terrifyingly ef of his beliefs to his congregation, Thomas fective not only in their own time, but long Hooker preached in a powerful and domi after Puritanism had receded in America. nating manner. Thus, he was considered a The sermons overflow with the authors' "virtual dictator" during his time in Con emotional struggles to influence the masses necticut. In his sermon "Meditation," Hook of the truth, and this emotion removes the er maintains that Christians must devote all sermons from purely religious texts and thought to sinful acts they have committed places them instead into sentimental Ameri and to the greatness of God, so that they can can literature. fully experience the truth in salvation. He Though the Puritan beliefs were describes the way to Providence "by serious increasingly questioned, "the transformative meditation" and he instructs his constituents impulse within Puritanism had its clearest to "look back to the lineage and pedigree manifestation in the pulpit, for the printed of our lusts, and track the abominations of Word erupted through the existing social our lives, step by step, until we come to the order only when given voice by Puritan min very nest where they are hatched and bred" isters" (Gustafson 15). All three sermonists (Hooker 303). In this way, he constantly re depict the practices and religious movements minds his congregation of the way to salva of their respective times. Their importance tion. as ministers of the word of God was mani Increase Mather also used a physical fested almost entirely in their abilities to ly dominating style of preaching to enforce interpret that word for their congregations. his authority in the community. He was con They share certain fundamental stylistic sidered to be a "commanding figure" (Miller elements in their sermons that remain stable 335). He held his position in the ministry in regardless of changing times and attitudes. the highest esteem, and enforced this in his One of these elements is the authoritative sermons by constantly reaffirming his own dominating figure each preacher presented authority in the church. In his "Sleeping at himself to be. The sermonists, while they Sermons," Mather exerts the importance of lived among their congregations, were not listening to what he offers during his ser entirely humbled by their own messages. mons: "As for sleeping at sermons, some They were well-educated in prime English look upon it as no sins; others account it a and American schools and universities, and peccadillo, a sin not worth taking notice of, they were well aware of the influence such or of troubling themselves about.